The secret societies of the European revolution 1776-1876
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| The secret societies of the European revolution |
The great European convulsion of the last century was foreshadowed by the Illuminati; the seeds of the movement which, skilfully directed by the ablest statesman of the age, has resulted in the establishment of the new German Empire, were sown by the Tugendbund; the independence of Greece is due to the Hetairia, and the extent to which the young Italian State owes its existence to the Carbonari and Young Italy is simply incalculable.
Much has been written concerning some of the associations forming the subject of these volumes, but there is no single work dealing with the whole of them in the careful and impartial manner that such a subject requires; and the writers who have, at various times, undertaken to relate the history of the Illuminati, the United Irishmen, and the Carbonari have been far too diffuse for the general reader, while, in most cases, their narratives exhibit the bias of party prejudice to an extent which envelopes all their statements in the mists of doubt.
To penetrate these mists has been a work of considerable difficulty for the author, and in some instances he has been obliged, after the most careful research and, in the case of the more recent Societies, the best-directed inquiries, to leave doubtful or disputed points as he found them. Before the work could even be commenced, it was necessary to have a clearly defined view of the elements which constitute a Secret Society.
If we under- stand by the words of any combination of individuals whose proceedings are conducted in secret, the definition will include organisations as widely separated from each other by their character and objects as the Privy Council, the fraternities of Comical Fellows and Independent Buffaloes, which combine conviviality with social economy, and the societies known to our detective police as the Long Firm and the Forty Thieves.
Nor will it suffice for the purpose to add to secrecy the further definition that the object of the combination must be political. As there are Secret Societies which are not political, so also there have been political associations which, though under secret direction, are separated by broad and well-marked distinctions from such organisations as the Carbonari and the Hetairia.
As an illustration of these distinctions, the National Charter Association and the Chartist conspirators of 1839 and 1848 may be quoted most advantageously, especially as attention has been drawn by Mr David Urquhart, in an article on the Chartist movement, which appeared in July 1873, in the Diplomatic 'Review, to the great similarity which he alleges to have existed between the Chartist organisation, towards the close of 1839, and that of the Hetairia.
After showing that the Greek association was based on the profoundest secrecy and that its mechanism was admirably adapted to the end which it had in view, Mr Urquhart states that "in principle and in form, tlie Chartist confederacy in its revolutionary aspect was substantially the same; for, like the Hetairia, it was composed of different grades — more numerous, indeed, and having functions more minute and complex than are to be found in its prototype — all of whom, in their several degrees, were subordinate to a secret committee of five individuals, in whose hands the supreme power over the organisation was concentrated.
Its members were divided into divisions and subdivisions, and again into districts and sub-districts; while these last in their turn branched out into classes and sub-classes — each sub-class being composed, in the metropolis of five, and in the provinces of ten persons.
Like the Hetairia, also, the constitution and arrangement of the several parts of the confederacy were such that each of these different grades or circles was kept in ignorance of the knowledge which had been communicated to the one next above it; the connecting line of information could not be traced upwards, while to the secret committee, who concerted and directed the conspiracy, all its ramifications downwards were perfectly well known."
Volume 1 contains
Introduction 1
Chap. I. The Illuminati 23
II. The United Irishmen 55
III. The Philadelphians 142
IV. The Tugenbund 181
V. The Carbonari 209
VI. The Associated Patriots 266
VII The Communeros . . 28
Volume 2 contains
Chap. VIII. The Refokmed Carbonari .... 1
IX. The Hetairia 45
X. The United Sclavonians .... 95
XI. The Templars 118
XII. Young Italy 141
XIII. The Families 200
XIV. Young Germany 236
XV. Young Poland 255
XVI. Young Switzerland 262
XVII. The Communists 268
XVIII. The Fenians 275
XIX. The Nihilists 303
XX. The Omladina 316
