 morrow some manifesto from the rebels, as they now began to be
called, which would give them an opportunity of acting in some way or another.
They were disappointed. The ordinary newspapers gave up the struggle that
morning, and only one very violent reactionary paper (called the Daily
Telegraph) attempted an appearance, and rated the rebels in good set terms for
their folly and ingratitude in tearing out the bowels of their common mother,
the English Nation, for the benefit of a few greedy paid agitators, and the
fools whom they were deluding. On the other hand, the Socialist papers (of which
three only, representing somewhat different schools, were published in London)
came out full to the throat of well-printed matter. They were greedily bought by
the whole public, who, of course, like the Government, expected a manifesto in
them. But they found no word of reference to the great subject. It seemed as if
their editors had ransacked their drawers for articles which would have been in
place forty years before, under the technical name of educational articles. Most
of these were admirable and straight forward expositions of the doctrines &amp;
practice of Socialism, free from haste and spite and hard words, and came upon
the public with a kind of May-day freshness, amidst the worry and terror of the
moment; and though the knowing well understood that the meaning of this move in
the game was mere defiance, and a token of irreconcilable hostility to the then
rulers of society, and though, also, they were meant for nothing else by the
rebels, yet they really had their effect as educational articles. However,
education of another kind was acting upon the public with irresistible power,
and probably cleared their heads a little.
    As to the Government, they were absolutely terrified by this act of
boycotting (the slang word then current for such acts of abstention). Their
counsels became wild and vacillating to the last degree: one hour they were for
giving way for the present till they could hatch another plot; the next they all
but sent an order for the arrest in the lump of all the workmen's committees;
the next they were on the point of ordering their brisk young general to take
any excuse that offered for another massacre. But when they called to mind that
the soldiery in that Battle of Trafalgar Square were so daunted by the slaughter
which they had made, that they could not be got to fire a second volley, they
shrank back again from the dreadful courage necessary for carrying out another
massacre. Meantime the prisoners, brought the second time before the
