equences. William Godwin, in his _Inquiry
concerning Political Justice_,[9] demanded the abolition of every form
of government, community of goods, the abolition of marriage, and
self-government of mankind according to the laws of justice. Godwin's
book attracted remarkable attention, from the novelty and audacity of
his point of view. "Soon after his book on political justice
appeared," writes a young contemporary, "workmen were observed to be
collecting their savings together, in order to buy it, and to read it
under a tree or in a tavern. It had so much influence that Godwin said
it must contain something wrong, and therefore made important
alterations in it before he allowed a new edition to appear. There can
be no doubt that both Government and society in England have derived
great advantage from the keenness and audacity, the truth and error,
the depth and shallowness, the magnanimity and injustice of Godwin, as
revealed in his inquiry concerning political justice."

[9] London, 1795, 2 vols.

* * * * *

Our next business is to turn from theoretical considerations of the
=contrat social= to the practice based upon this catchword; and to
look for traces of Anarchist thought upon the blood-stained path of
the great French Revolution--that typical struggle of the modern
spirit of freedom against ancient society. We are the more desirous to
do this, because of the frequent and repeated application of the word
Anarchist to the most radical leaders of the democracy by the
contemporaries, supporters, and opponents of the Revolution. As far as
we in the present day are able to judge the various parties from the
history of that period,--and we certainly do not know too much about
it,--there were not apparently any real Anarchists[10] either in the
Convention or the Commune of Paris. If we want to find them, we must
begin with the Girondists and not with the Jacobins, for the
Anarchists of to-day recognise--and rightly so--no sharper contrast
to their doctrine than Jacobinism; while the Anarchism of Proudhon
is connected in two essential points with its Girondist
precursors--namely, in its protest against the sanction of property
and in its federal principle. But, nevertheless, neither Vergniaud nor
Brissot was an Anarchist, even though the latter, in his
_Philosophical Examination of Property and Theft_ (1780), uttered a
catchword, afterwards taken up by Proudhon. At the same time, the