The International was inaugurated in England in 1864, at a meeting held in St. Martin’s Hall, London, at which Professor Beesly took the chair. It made considerable progress among the Trades Unions, and produced a great impression (beyond indeed what its genuine strength warranted) on the arbitrary Governments of Europe. It culminated as to the Socialistic influence it had, in the Commune of Paris, of which we shall treat in a separate chapter. The International did not long outlive the Commune, and once more for several years all proletarian influence was dormant in England, except for what activity was possible among the foreign refugees living there, with whom some few of the English working men had relations. In the year 1881,143 an attempt was made to federate the various Radical clubs of London under the name of the 185 Democratic Federation. Part of the heterogeneous elements, mainly the mere political radicals, of which this was composed, withdrew from it in 1883; but other elements, connected with the literary and intellectual side of Socialism, joined it, and soon after the body declared for unqualified Socialism, and took the name of the Social Democratic Federation. This was the first appearance of modern or scientific Socialism in England, and on these grounds excited considerable public attention, though the movement, being then almost wholly intellectual and literary, had not at that time reached the masses.
Differences of opinion, chiefly on points of temporary tactics, caused a schism in the body, and a rival, the Socialist League, was formed, both Societies carrying on an active socialist propaganda, and in process of time often acting in concert. The West-end riots on Monday 8th February 1886, and the consequent trial of four members of the Social Democratic Federation, brought the two organisations much together. A good many branches both of the Federation 186 and the League were founded and carried on with various fortunes. But in the year 1890 dissensions in the League, caused by a considerable anarchistic element, broke it up. In the meantime the Fabian Society, which took form as a Socialist body about the same time as the League, has been actively