When  we  opened  this  house  the  voice  of  the  -<*^y*«l^t  v»
silent  in  the  land  and  the  watch-fires  of  the  Chartist  wcr
extinct.  As  far  as  we  were  able,  we  intended  to  maintain  the
claim  of  Socialists  and  Chartists  and  some  other  causes  far
which  they  cared  not.  We  cared  for  political  freedom  at  hooe
and  abroad,  for  unless  it  prevails  abroad  it  can  never  be  sectfc
at  home.  There  b  an  aristocracy  of  sex  quite  as  offensive  as  at
aristocracy  of  peers.  Manhood  suffrage  was  popular  with  the
Chartists,  but  they  cared  nothing  for  women's  enfranchiiencnL

In  a  passage  which  I  quote  from  a  manifesto  of  KoMotk,
Rollin,  and  Mazzini,  which  did  but  express  our  ambitaoa  >~

"  A  great  movement  must  have  an  arm  to  raise  the  flag,  t
voice  to  cry  aloud — The  hour  has  come  !  We  are  that  am  lad
that  voice.  .  .  .  Advanced  Guard  of  the  Revolutioo,  we  shall
disappear  amid  the  ranks  on  the  day  of  the  awakening  of  tfat
peoples.  .  .  .  Wc  are  not  the  future ;  we  are  its  precunofS>
We  are  not  the  democracy  ;  we  are  an  army  bound  to  ciear  ihe
way  for  democracy."

It  was  my  intention  to  "  disappear  in  the  ranks."  As  aoot
as  I  had  extinguished  all  the  liabilities  I  had  incurred,  I  voles-
teered  to  hand  over  the  place  to  the  promoters.  I  tbooghC  i
others  had  the  profit  which  might  accrue  they  wooM  ^*mhm—
the  work  without  direction.  This  was  my  mistake.  To  Btil
was  of  no  consc-quence  who  had  the  advantage  if  the  IkmhsmI
maintained.     But  nobody  believed  this.
