About the same time, in the spring of 1871, came the tidings of the great rising of the working class in the Commune at Paris. Mass meetings of German workmen were held in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Dresden, Leipzic, and other large towns, to express their sympathy with their French brethren in the struggle which they were waging. In the Reichstag Bebel made a speech which contained the following passage:—‘Be assured that the entire European proletariat, and all that have a feeling for freedom and independence in their heart, have their eyes fixed on Paris. And if Paris is for the present crushed, I remind you that the struggle in Paris is only a small affair of outposts, that the main conflict in Europe is still before us, and that ere many decades pass away the battle-cry of the Parisian proletariat, war to the palace, peace to the cottage, death to want and idleness, will be the battle-cry of the entire European proletariat.’[2] When the war fever of 1871 subsided the socialistic agitation resumed its course, and it was fostered by the wild speculations of the time, and by the industrial crisis which followed it. At the elections of 1874 the socialist party polled 340,000 votes and returned nine members. From Lassalle’s first appearance on the scene in 1862, the socialistic agitation had encountered the German police at every step of its career. Its leaders were prosecuted and thrown into prison. Meetings were broken up, newspapers and organisations were suppressed. The free expression of opinion on the platform and through the press was curtailed in every way. Such experience taught the socialist leaders the advantage and necessity of union in face of the common enemy. The retirement of Schweitzer from the control of the Lassalle party in 1871 had removed the most serious obstacle to union. Hasenclever had been elected president in his stead, but it was felt that the party had outgrown the autocratic guidance which had been helpful and perhaps necessary to it in its early years. All the tendencies and influences of the time served to bring the Lassalle and the Eisenach parties together. They were pursuing the same aims under the same conditions, against the same opposition; and there was really nothing now to keep them apart except the recollection of old rivalries and animosities which soon faded under the pressure of their practical difficulties. Under these circumstances the process of union was easy, and the fusion of the Eisenach and Lassalle parties was effected in a congress at Gotha in 1875. At this congress 25,000 regular members were represented, of whom 9000 belonged to the Marx party and 15,000 to that of Lassalle. The united body assumed the name of the Socialistic Working Men’s Party of Germany, and drew up a programme, which, as the most important that till that time had been published by any socialistic organisation, deserves to be given entire.[3]