One might even doubt whether the Proudhonian ideas defended by the Parisian workmen in 1866 were really those of the Proudhon of 1848. They seemed much more akin to the thesis of his last work, _La Capacité politique des Classes ouvrières_, published in 1865. This book was itself written under the inspiration of a working men’s movement which had arisen in Paris after 1862 as the result of a manifesto signed by sixty Parisian workmen. This manifesto had been submitted to Proudhon as the best known representative of French socialism. The attitude of the French workmen at the opening of the “International,” then, was the effect of a revival of Proudhonism as the outcome of the publication of this new volume rather than a persistence of the ideas of 1848.[689] The revival was of short duration. Since then, however, the Marxian ideas have been submitted to very thorough criticism, and certain recent writers have displayed an entirely new interest in Proudhon’s ideas. These writers, chief among whom is M. Georges Sorel, combine a great admiration for Marx with a no less real respect for Proudhon. But even in this case it is difficult to speak of the movement as a revival of Proudhon’s ideas. It is rather a new current which owes its inspiration to syndicalism and combines French anarchy and German collectivism. In any case, it is so recent that we cannot yet determine its full import. BOOK III: LIBERALISM It is time we returned to the Classical writers. Now that the combat had grown fierce among its critics, we are anxious to know what the Classical school itself was doing to repel the onslaughts of the enemy. Its apparent quiescence must not mislead us into the belief that it was already extinct. Although the great works of Ricardo, Malthus, and Say were produced early in the century, it cannot be said that economic literature even after that period, especially in England, had remained at a standstill. But no work worthy of comparison with the writings of the first masters or their eloquent critics had as yet appeared. Now, however, the science was to captivate the public ear a second time, and for a short period at least to unite its many votaries. But the union was no true one. The Classical school itself was about to break up into two camps, the English and the French. In no sense can they be regarded as rivals, for they are defenders of the same cause. They are both champions of the twin principles of Liberalism and Individualism. But while the first, with John Stuart Mill as its leader, lent a sympathetic ear to the vigorous criticism now rampant everywhere, which claimed that the older theories ought to yield place to the new, the French school, on the other hand, with Bastiat as its chief, struggled against all innovation, and reaffirmed its faith in the “natural order” and _laissez-faire_.