Yes, the perverse ingenuity of man has turned the systematic and benevolent emancipations operated by Christianity into an evil greater than the evil it sought to redress--into an indirect and masked system of slavery more hideous and unbearable than the direct and undisguised slavery it warred against. For what did these Christian emancipations operate; and what have been their consequences to humanity? They turned well-fed, well-housed, comfortable slaves into ragged, starving paupers; and their consequences have been to fill Europe with a race of Proletarians by far more numerous and miserable than the human chattels of the ancients, whose place they occupy in modern civilization. Out of the systematic emancipations (the progressive and ultimately universal manumission of slaves) operated by Christianity have sprung what are now called the middle and working classes. The more fortunate of the manumitted and of their posterity have become our modern Bourgeois; the less fortunate and more numerous have become our modern Proletarians. These latter are what the French call _le Prolétariat de l’Europe_; and this _Prolétariat_ their Guizots and doctrinaires now divide into the four following classes, which we pray all true democrats to mark, learn, and inwardly digest:--1, les Ouvriers; 2, les Mendians; 3, les Voleurs; and 4, les Filles Publiques: that is to say, 1, Workmen; 2, Beggars; 3, Robbers; and 4, Prostitutes!--a classification which must be highly flattering to the operative class, and enamour them vastly of royal and doctrinaire governments. These several divisions of the _Prolétariat_ are thus defined by the doctrinaires:-- “A workman is a Proletarian who works for wages in order to live. “A beggar is a Proletarian who will not or cannot work, and who begs in order to live. “A robber is a Proletarian who will neither work nor beg, but who robs or steals in order to live. “A public woman is a Proletarian who will neither work nor beg nor steal, but who prostitutes herself in order to live.” Such is the classification by which the vast majority of civilized society is nowadays distinguished by writers of the first eminence! Such is the classification they justify and would uphold! Nay, as we shall show, they offer it to us as the legitimate development of civilization, and as a just and righteous inheritance purchased for us by the blood of our Redeemer, and bequeathed to us through eighteen centuries of Gospel propagandism!!! [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER II. ORIGIN OF SLAVERY IN PATERNAL AUTHORITY. Antiquity of Slavery--Anterior to Legal Institution--Examples cited from Ancient History--Arose from Patriarchal Government--Despotic Power of Head of Family--Marriage Custom of Purchase--Aristocratic Governments favourable to Development--Decadence under Republics.