Communication from the Continent (May 24, 1873)

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Communications from the Continent reported that the Secession movement, which had been set on foot in some places, had been followed by the usual result — Anarchy. Certain individuals, envying the cheap importance that the mere act of secession had given some of their fellows had resolved to learn the trick themselves, and had, of course, found no difficulty in setting up a very ready pretext in order to become Seceders from Secession. The attempt which had been made to remedy this state of things by inducing the erratic Sections to affiliate to the Jurassien Federation, though doubtless pleasing enough to M. M. Bakounin and Guillaume, whom it would have elevated to virtual dictatorship and to the national susceptibilities of a prime mover of the pernicious agitation in England, had not been found so acceptable to the denizens of those other countries whose “Institutions” had escaped the blotting of a co-operative pennyworth of foggy elucidation. Hence the anticipated result, the Secessionist fractions were rapidly thinning out into mere isolated groups, without a common understanding, except to quarrel with each other and to keep the peace towards the enemies of Labour — a situation which, though possibly not without its charme for a Morley, could only gain its full need of appreciation at the hands of a Thiers or a Bismarck.