Elustrative Notices.

UNDER the title of Redemption Society a body of persons have associated, for the purpose of illustrating, by practical experiment, the truthfulness of the principles of co-operation and mutual aid. The Redemption Society holds an estate of excellent land, situated in South Wales, possessing qualities of the highest order for agricultural and manufacturing enterprise. One requisite to render success certain, is a favourable effort on the part of the intelligent and well-disposed of the working classes towards the experiment. The time is come when the organisation of industry, on a just and humane basis, should take the place of the present system, which permits the wealth-producing classes to toil on in the midst of the abundance they have created, and to suffer privations unparalleled. The wants and spirit of the age should be met—and as the silent, peaceful, irresistible social revolution proceeds, its course will be obviously beneficial. There will be liberty without licentiousness, equality without anarchy, and fraternity without spoliation. The members of the London district of the Redemption Society meet every Tuesday evening at the Lecture Rooms, Halladay's Coffee House, 37, Holborn Hill, (opposite Hatton Garden), where lectures and discussions take place on the objects and principles of the society. Chair taken at half-past eight o'clock. Persons desirous of information are earnestly invited to attend.

A correspondent argues thus:-In one number of the Reasoner it is said, 'We labour to establish the coincidence of religion with morality.' In another, religion is averred to be 'a serious practical error.' Therefore we are endeavouring to make morality correspond with a 'serious practical error.' But to make religion coincide with morality, is the opposite of making morality coincide with religion. To make what is assumed to be error coincide with what one regards as truth, is a very different thing from making the assumed truth coincide with suspected error. In one case you purify error, in the other you vitiate truth. Our proposal was to purify the error. We did not think it possible that the language we employed could be misunderstood.

N. S. is of opinion that one great step in advance towards Socialism or Universal Brotherhood, would be to establish a universal language for all nations, and to avoid, as much as possible, all jealousy and rivalry. The Latin language appears to him most suitable—and as the greatest part of Christendom are, or profess to be, of the Roman religion, it is more than probable it would be adopted. This, and the phonetic mode of printing and writing, would soon create a universal language, instead of the Babel-like confusion of tongues now used in the world.

The Spectator, in commenting on the 'opprobriums' of English law, says— 'These things are common places, very tiresome and tedious to discuss, because they are so trite. "Common places," are they? Yes-gross injustice, coarse mockery, and silly perverseness, are common places in our code and practice of law; the more shame to us that they are so. If none but fools persevere in approved foolery, then truly must we confess ourselves, on this showing, a nation of fools.'

'The changes of the seasons,' says J. Michelet, so indifferent for the rich, constitute the basis of the poor man's life-his real events.'

In a narrative of the proceedings relative to the appointment of the Medical Officers to the Portsmouth, Portsea, and Gosport Hospital, by W. C. Engledue, M.D., formerly President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, we find the following passage, illustrating the personal character of Dr. Engledue:'I wished not to bolster myself up with advantages which were not enjoyed equally by all my brethren. I entered on the race of life free and unfettered, and free and unfettered I will remain. No man shall point the finger of scorn at me, and declare that, in my social career, I took that which I did not use my best exertions to give him an opportunity of possessing. I will run the race, and I will use my best endeavours to win, but it shall be on fair and equal terms. 1 will take nothing from the world which is not honestly, truly, and manfully earned. These are my feelings-my weaknesses. They may be designated Utopian, visionary, Quixotic, or anything else the reader may please; there is, at any rate, this quality attached to them-they cannot be disrobed of the dignity of reason-the dignity of truth.'

'Moderation' writes: The last Reasoner much pleased me. The subject of association is an all-important one, but neither of us will see it carried out extensively, because the people are not yet sufficiently imbued with knowledge to be fit for such a state. A hundred years hence, perhaps a wiser Cabet, or a more comprehensive Owen, may lead to more fortunate results. To sketch out, with any prospect of success, an associative combination of men, requires a master minda brain that will at once encompass all the sciences directly necessary to human happiness: among these I include physiology, anatomy, dietetics, agriculture, geology, architecture, mechanics, geography; but I do not know where to stop in subdivisions, for although there are many departments of knowledge, yet there is only one science-one large stream, in which all the streamlets run. Where is now such a man to be found to stand out of the millions of human beings, pointing as a beacon to that happiness to which all men are gravitating? I am anxious to gain all the information I can about association, and shall peruse with attention your thoughts on the subject. I have no doubt that, some day or other, I shalį join some such association-but when, how, or where, I know not yet. I fear men are not yet ripe for association, as I understand it.'

A man, entering a druggist's shop in this town, (says a Bilston correspondent of the Nonconformist) where lay a petition in favour of arbitration instead of war, was asked by the shopman if he would sign it. 'No,' said the intelligent, ‘I am a Wesleyan, and will not sign it, because it is against the Bible.' 'Indeed; how do you make that out?' Why, the Bible says, there shall be "wars and rumours of wars," and I won't sign it.'

Emerson says:-'Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic. In history, our imagination makes fools of us, plays us false. Kingdom and lordship, power and estate, are a gaudier vocabulary than private John and Edward in a small house and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both the sum total of both is the same. Why all this deference to Alfred, and Scanderberg, and Gustavus? Suppose they were virtuous: did they wear out virtue?'

Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, of Philadelphia, who has been pursuing her studies for three years past at the Geneva Medical College, received the degree of M.D. at the annual commencement of that institution in February. The subject of her thesis was ship fever.' The appearance of the female Esculapius on the stage was greeted with approbation. G. J. H.

WOULD it be an impossible thing for the Parliament to appropriate some piece of waste land, capable of sustaining a thousand poor families; to build suitable habitations for them-I mean not elegant, but plain, substantial houses (houses, by the way, which should give a vote to the occupier), and well drained and ventilated, so as to be salubrious? The buildings might be arranged on a co-operative plan, so far as the common conveniences are concerned which are already being realised in model washing, lodging houses and baths. There would be no great objection to a public kitchen and a public table; for I presume those adults who were very hungry would make no permanent objections to a dinner in company. In such a colony as is here supposed to be instituted, trades and manufactures should be introduced in such proportion as would enable the residents to supply themselves, as far as possible, without barter-in fine, to render them self-supporting and self-dependent. Let proper superintendents and directors be appointed by the founders of the colony. Let it be understood that whoever came were to perform such work as might be appointed to them to do. Let the hours of labour be so ordered so as not to exceed the average extent of strength of the parties who are to perform it. Their remuneration would be wholesome shelter, wholesome food,sufficient clothing, and a useful and sound secular education for their children. The surplus products of the colony, when there were any, should be disposed of, to repay the cost of its foundation and expense of direction; and afterwards it should become the property of the colonists, who would have before them the prospect of ultimate competency. There should be no air of charity about the place-no personal humiliation-but perfect order and an absolute enforcement of duty, as nothing less would ensure the productiveness of the place.

These arrangements made and announced, let the government invite the really destitute, and able families of the unemployed, to enter such a colony. Let there be no qualification as to opinion-let all shades of politics and theology be equally eligible. And let the coming, and staying or leaving, be equally optional, Many would not come, many would not stay-but if they perished, their blood would not, as now, be at the door of the law, which binds up all property and leaves the poor to perish, or degrades them in the poor-house. There should be no degradation here. The colony I allude to should be such a place that a man of independent spirit could come to it. The principle of regulation should be, as far as possible-Assistance without interference, help without dominion. You cannot alleviate poverty at once. You cannot make the ignorant happy in a day. To supply the poor, the absolutely poor, with the means of rising, is all that is required. The more there can be left to their own exertions the better.

Great numbers of the working classes would refuse any such asylum as this above sketched. To be forced to work whether they would or not, at what shall be appointed for them to do-to be required to work a given number of hours-to be restricted to plain food, to plain homes, to plain clothes. O no, they will [No. 18, Vol. VI.]