100 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
munists at the Red Lion, but in his lectures to the assembled work
men he spoke more often of the progress of his mechanical inven
tions than of social revolution. Most of the time he sat peacefully
among his comrades, smoking a pipe, drinking his beer, and join
ing in the singing of French and German songs. On one occasion
he attended a public debate between a minister of the gospel and
a woman who was an avowed atheist, and concluded that the lady
had failed in her effort to explain all creation by the simple term
"nature."
On September 22, 1845, Weitling spoke at a great "Festival of
the Nations" commemorating the birth of the French Republic in
- The program consisted of instrumental music, choral sing
ing in many tongues, and formal addresses. Representatives of the
German, French, Italian, Polish, and Swiss colonies in London
were present, plus a Hungarian and a Turk; and the speaking was
done in English, French, and German. Thomas Cooper, a leader
of the Chartists, presided, and the editor of the Chartist Northern
Star spoke for the British. Dr. Berrier-Fontaine, a disciple of
Cabet, spoke for the French and Weitling for the Germans. In
ternationalism was the theme which characterized all these ad
dresses. Each speaker denounced national rivalries and pledged, as
part of a Young Europe movement, to work for the extermination
of tyranny everywhere. Weitling was received warmly as the
martyr from the Continent. He pleaded for brotherhood, de
nounced militarism, and maintained that if soldiers in opposing
armies could only be given an opportunity to speak to each other
across the battle line before the firing began, wars would turn into
meetings of friends and brothers. No less a person than Friedrich
Engels commented, in the Rheinische Jahrbücher, on the inter
national character of this fraternal demonstration.^8
Not much more is known about Weitling's London sojourn ex
cept for his part in the lively debates in the London society of
communists, to be noted presently. He took credit for increasing
(^8) Buddensieg, Kultur des deutschen Proletariats, 21; Adler, Erste sozialpoliti¬
sche Arbeiterbewegung in Deutschland, 80-82.