In the following year a second deputation of French workmen crossed the Channel. Napoleon was interested in the Polish insurrection of 1863, and it was part of his policy to encourage the expression of opinion in favour of an intervention in Poland by the Western Powers. At this visit wishes for the restoration of Poland and for general congresses in the interest of labour against capital were expressed. Nothing decisive, however, was done till 1864, when on the 28th September a great public meeting of working men of all nations was held in St. Martin’s Hall, London. Professor Beesly presided, and Karl Marx was present. The meeting resulted in the appointment of a provisional committee to draw up the constitution of the new association. This committee consisted of fifty representatives of different nations, the English forming about half of its number. At the first meeting of the committee the sum of three pounds was collected, a humble beginning of the finances of an association which was designed to shake the world. The work of drafting the constitution was first of all undertaken by Mazzini, but the ideas and methods of the Italian patriot were not suited to the task of founding an international association of labour. The statutes he drew up were adapted to the political conspiracy, conducted by a strong central authority, in which he had spent his life; he was strongly opposed to the antagonism of classes, and his economic ideas were vague. Marx, on the other hand, was in entire sympathy with the most advanced labour movement—had indeed already done much to mould and direct it; to him, therefore, the duty of drawing up a constitution was transferred. The inaugural address and the statutes drawn up by him were unanimously adopted by the committee. In the inaugural address[4] three points were particularly emphasised. First, Marx contended that, notwithstanding the enormous development of industry and of national wealth since 1848, the misery of the masses had not diminished. Secondly, the successful struggle for the ten-hours working-day meant the break-down of the political economy of the middle classes, the competitive operation of supply and demand requiring to be regulated by social control. Thirdly, the productive association of a few daring ‘hands’ had proved that industry on a great scale, and with all the appliances of modern science, could be carried on without the existence of capitalist masters; and that wage-labour, like slave-labour, was only a transitory form, destined to disappear before associated labour, which gives to the workman a diligent hand, a cheerful spirit, and a joyful heart.