BRUSSELSmanner. He seemed to be about thirty-six. He was introduced to me
as Schapper....
Schapper invited us to sit with him at the back of the room. On the
way he showed me a poster with the heading, 'Statutes of the German
Workers' Educational Union'. ... The main principle of the Union is
that men can only come to liberty and self-consciousness by cultivating
their intellectual faculties. Consequently all the evening meetings are
devoted to instruction. On one evening, English is taught, on another
geography, on the third history, on the fourth, drawing and physics, on
the fifth, singing, on the sixth, dancing, and on the seventh communist
politics....
We sat in the places allotted to us; meanwhile the room had filled
up completely. The president, who was unknown to me - I was told
he was a doctor, opened the meeting. When a solemn silence had been
established and everyone had taken his pipe from his mouth, the sec-
retary (a working tailor whose descriptive talent seemed to me to
be truly enviable) declared that Citizen Schapper had invited Citizen
Hildebrand and Citizen Diefenbach and asked if anyone had an objec-
tion to make. Then we went on to current politics and Citizen Schapper
delivered a report on the week's events. His speech was eloquent, very
detailed and full of interest. It was evident that he and the Association
had many sources of information.... Naturally a strong communist
tendency was always plain and the proletariat was the constant theme
and the one real thread running through the entire speech. I admit
that I can stand a good dose of liberalism, but certain passages made
my hair stand on end....^106At first the German communists in London had been under the influ-
ence of Cabet's peaceful Utopian communism, following the failure of
their attempt at a putsch in Paris in alliance with the Blanquists. Cabet
had also persuaded them to give up their conspiratorial methods - though
they necessarily remained a secret society. But they rejected Cabet's pro-
posal to found a communist colony in America. By that time Weitling's
influence had become important. But his notions of immediate revolution
soon alienated the majority of the London communists who began to be
much influenced by their personal experience of Owenite schemes, by
Chartism and by the tangible success of the British trade unions. Weitling
held the view that 'mankind is either always ripe or it never will be....
Revolutions arise like storms and no one can chart their operations
beforehand.. .. The intellect has only a poor role to play and without
emotion can do nothing... the greatest deeds are accomplished by the
emotions that move the masses.'^107 Schapper's view, on the other hand,
was that 'it is as easy to compel a tree to grow as to inculcate new ideas
into mankind by force. Let us avoid physical violence: it is crude; and