ABSTRACT
Liberalism had conquered autocracy and bureaucracy by that method in England and France, and then left industry to make what it could of the new political conditions by the unregulated action of competition between individuals. When the events of 1871 in Paris tested them practically, their hopeless public incapacity forced their opponents to exterminate them in the most appalling massacre of modern times-all the more ghastly because it was a massacre of the innocents. Member-ship of the Fabian Society, though it involves an express avowal of Socialism, excites no more comment than membership of the Society of Friends, or even of the Church of England. Since 1889 the Socialist movement has been completely transformed throughout Europe ; and the result of the transformation may fairly be described as Fabian Socialism. Public opinion in Europe was reconciled to the massacre by the usual process of slandering the victims.
