MR RUSKIN’S NEW COMMUNITY.

Evening Star, Issue 3491, 1 May 1874, Page 3

MR RUSKIN’S NEW COMMUNITY.

The ; Writer of “ A Lady’s' Letter from London” gives the following description of a singular project which Mr Ruakin, the great art critic, is said to have in view, and to the carrying out of which he is said to have been incited by Mr Carlyle , It may interest your readers, the writer says, to learn .that in the extraordinary characteristic, and most. interesting serial which Mr Kuskitx has been issuing for a great many months under the title-“Fors Clavigera,” ho at length gives; to. the world a full statement of his design, for the establishment of the I 'working' community to which he intends to devote hia* fortune. He has been long setting forth his views in this direction, but he now formulates his serious intention, and defines the purpose of his * k® *' the highest possible education of English men and women living by agriculture in their native laud.” For the attain ment of this purpose he means to buy the first pieces of ground offered to him at a fair . price, to put them ..as, rapidly as. possible into order, and to settle upon them as many families as they can support of young and healthy persons, on the condition that they do the best they can for their, .livelihood with, their own hands, and Submit s themselves and their ®£ lldren to the rules written for them. When the land is bonght, as many, families as it can support (by thejr own labor) are to .®® < ™°? en Ruakin by experienced landlords who know their people, and, as he adds with characteristic quaintness, ‘can send me cheerful and honest ones, accustomed to obey orders, and live in the fear of God. Whether the fear be Catholic, or Church of England, or Presbyterian, I do not in the least care, so that the family be ,. eapa-bl® of any kind of sincere devotion, and conscious of the sacredness of order. If any young couples of the higher classes choose to accept such rough life, I would rather have them for tenants than any others.” The children are to attend a training school, and every household is to have a sub-library chosen for it_put of a head library, consisting of periPJjtted, books* but no newspapers are to be allowed m any household!. No machines moved ,by .artificial power are to be used on the estates of the society-wind, water, and animal force only are to be employed j there be a?i little trade; or importation as possible ; “the utmost simplicity of life and restriction of possession being combined with highest attainable refinement of temper and thought. The first essential point in the education given to children will ,be the habit of instant, finely accurate, and totally unreasoning obedieneo to their fathers, mothers, and tutors, the same, precise and unquestioning submission being required from heads of families to the officers set over them. The second essential will be the un- . derstanding of, the nature of honor, making the obedience solemn and constant; so that the slightest violation of the laws of the society may be regarded as a grave breach of trust, and no less disgraceful than a soldier’s recoiling from his place in a field' .of battle. In oiir, present ■ state of utter moral disorganization it might, indeed, seem' as it it'would be impossible either to secure obedience or explain the sensation of honor; but the instincts of both are native in man, and the roots of them cannot wither, even under the dustheap of modem liberal opinions,” And now for these laws which to violate will be disgrace. “They will be—with some relaxation and modification, so as to fit them for English people—-those of Florence in the fourteenth century. In what additional rales may be adopted I Shall follow, for the most part, Bacon or Sir Thomas More, finder sanction always of the higher authority which of late the English nation has wholly set its strength to defy—that of the Founder of its Religion.” That the foundation of this community will ever take place is doubtful.