one by personal enterprise. Is there any
real reason why groups of persons, whose employment is in the city, but
whose hearts are in the country, should not found small colonies for
themselves on the outskirts of London? Let a thousand householders
combine themselves into a company; let them choose their own site,
build their own houses; let them erect their own Church--one Church
upon the broad basis of charity instead of dogma would suffice--elect
their own managing committee, and set themselves to the creation of a
true community. Let them possess their own electric plant for heating
and lighting; let every house share the common convenience; and since
domestic labour forms one of the chief difficulties to-day, let common
dining-halls be erected for every hundred persons, where good and cheap
meals could be provided, or from which such meals could be supplied to
private houses, at the bare cost of their production. Let it be the
aim of these communities to collect persons of not one trade or
profession only, but persons of varied occupations to compose their
citizenship, so that as many forms of human energy as might be possible
should be represented, each contributing its own element to the common
life. Let all the trades permitted in the little township be conducted
on co-operative principles, and not for private gain. Let due
provision be made for efficient education, for the cultivation of the
arts, and for the proper means of pleasure. Would not such a
combination of men and women represent the best ideal of a human
community? And can we not see that in the mere economy of means and
money the gain by such a system would be immense? Suppose the
capitalised value of such a township, including the purchase of land,
the erection of houses, draining, lighting, and so forth, were put at a
million and a quarter sterling, which is a generous estimate, this
would impose upon the individual house-holders no more than 40 pounds
per annum, calculated at 4 per cent.; and besides this he would share
in the great economy of co-operative trading. If this estimate be
rejected as inadequate, it is easy to compute the cost by adding a
burden of 10 pounds per annum to each house-holder for each quarter of
a million expended; but even if the total charge reached 50 pounds or
60 pounds per annum for each householder, he would gain immensely in
what he could get for his expenditure, compared with what he could get
for the sam