The original edition is entitled: *“Address and Provisional 
Rules of the Working Men’s International Association, established 
September 28, 1864, at a Public Meeting held at St. Martin’s Hall, 
Long Acre, London.” Price one penny. Printed at the “Bee-Hive”’ 
Newspaper Office, 10, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, 1864.* The 
address begins: “It is a great fact that the misery of the working 
masses has not diminished from 1848 to 1864, and yet this period 
is unrivalled for the development of its industry and the growth of 
its commerce.” By way of proof, facts are quoted from the Pustic 
Health Reports about the poor nutrition of various groups of 
urban workers and agricultural day labourers in the country. It 
then continues: 

*“Such are the official statements published by order of 
Parliament in 1864, during the millennium of free trade, at a time 
when the Chancellor of the Exchequer told the House of 
Commons that 


cee 


the average condition of the British labourer has improved in a degree we 
know to be extraordinary and unexampled in the history of any country or any 


’ 


age. 


“Upon these official congratulations jars the dry remark of the 
official Public Health Report: 


“*The public health of a country means the health of its masses, and the masses 
will scarcely be healthy unless, to their very base, they be at least moderately 
prosperous.’ 

“Dazzled by the ‘Progress of the Nation’ statistics dancing before 
his eyes, the Chancellor of the Exchequer exclaims in wild ecstasy: 


a See present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 5-13.— Ed. 


Documents.—I1. The Incriminated Quotations 133 


““From 1842 to 1852 the taxable income of the country increased by 6 per cent; 
in the eight years from 1853 to 1861, it has increased from the basis taken in 1853, 
20 per cent! The fact is so astonishing as to be almost incredible!... This 
intoxicating augmentation of wealth and power,’ adds Mr. Gladstone, ‘is entirely 
confined to classes of property.’” * 


In German translation”: 


No. 2. CAPITAL