ABSTRACT
Robert Owen believed in years that his “denunciation of all religions” had been turning-point of his career. Indeed, a long time was to pass before Owen assumed in any sense the position of a working-class leader. Thus it comes about that, while the country is undergoing a three years’ terror of repression, culminating in 1819 in the “Peterloo massacre” and the “Six Acts” strengthening the “Gagging Bills” of 1817, Owen goes on urging, almost without change of substance, his Plan for relief of the poor. Owen himself had obviously at the stage not the smallest intention of instigating or supporting working-class revolt, much less any revolutionary design. In London he figured as “the benevolent Mr. Owen,” and mingled chiefly with men of the governing class and imbued with autocratic ideas. But it was with philosophic Radicalism of middle-class Utilitarians, and not with the struggling Radicalism of workers and the militant reformers, that he had been brought into close personal contact.
