and Irish families, as well as Scotch, it is not strange that their manners and customs gave great offence to their Presbyterian neighbors, and indeed there was much that was objectionable. It terminated in a short time ; the society was dissolved ; the property was sold at an enormous loss ; the buildings were pulled down, and the materials sold ; and nothing now remains of New Orbiston. A similar experiment was also made at Tytherley, in Hampshire, and was equally unsuccess- ful. Mr. Owen's attempts to establish a '• Labor Ex- change" in London, in connection with a bazaar and a bank, were likewise fruitless ; after a short existence the concern became bankrupt. In 1828 he visited Mexico on an invitation from the Mexican government to carry out his scheme there, but nothing was done. In 1829 he held a public debate at Cincinnati, with the Rev. Alexander Campbell, D.D., of Bethany, Ya., on the "Evidences of Christianity;" of which discussion a newspaper of the day says : " With an acute, vigorous mind, quick perceptions, and rapid powers of combina- tion, Mr. Campbell sorely puzzled his antagonist by his masterly defence of the truth, divine origin, and inesti- mable importance of Christianity." In spite of his fail- ures, Owen lost nothing of his wonderful activity. For a long time he resided at London, where he held weekly reunions and a great number of meetings. In these gatherings he delivered more than a thousand dis- courses. For years he edited the Millennial Gazette, a publication designed to show that men might bfe hap- pier by uniting their interests than by carrying out the present competition sj'stem. He wrote more than two thousand articles for the journals. He also undertook numerous journeys, some of which were to France, where his "rational sj-stem" did not even succeed in ex- citing curiosity. An audience which he obtained in 1840 from queen Victoria, by the mediation of lord Mel- bourne, provoked against him in the House of Lords some most severe remarks. After having failed in 1847 in the parliamentary elections of London, he thought to take advantage of the Revolution of February, 1848, fibr passing into France and ralh'ing to the support of his system the provisional government, or one of the social- istic parties; but he could not make his voice heard there. He, however, continued for the rest of his life to advocate his views both as a writer and public speaker, and revisited America several times, attempting to found a system of religion and society according to reason alone. During his last years he was a believer in spiritualism, through which he became convincedof the immortality of the soul ; and he devoted much effort to the vindica- tion of his claim to hold conversations with the spirits of the dead. He died at Newton, Nov. 19, 1858.
Owen insisted on an absolute equality in all rights and duties, and the abolition of all superiority, in- cluding alike that of capital and that of birth. Being desirous of improving the condition of the industrial classes, he speculated on the causes of evil, and ap- proached the subject from the extreme sensational point of view. He regarded the power of circumstances as controlling, and he was led to consider action as sim- ply obedience to the stronger motive. He thus intro- duced the idea of physical causation into the human will, and made the rule of right to be each one's own pleasures and pains. He believed that man is bom a passive creature with certain susceptibilities, and that external circumstances acting on these susceptibilities of necessity give rise to our dispositions, and through them form our whole character; in other words, that the character of an individual is formedybr him, and not by him. This doctrine, which is the most extreme devel- opment of philosophical necessity that the present age has known, was doubtless in great part the result of a too exclusive experience with that class of mankind which exists chiefly as the appendages and machinery of commercial life, and which is made up of those whose poverty and ignorance unite to render them to an un- usual degree passive instruments. As a philosopher
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Owen must be condemned; but, whatever may be thought of the opinions he held, there can be little doubt of his extreme benevolence, his moral integrity, and his executive ability, more especially as displayed in his early life. His publications are, A New I'iew of Society (Lond. 1813) : — Observations on the Effects of the Mamifacturing System (1815) : — Address to the Inhab- itants of New Lanark (Lond. 1816) : — Tracts Relative to the New Society (1817) : — Two Memorials in Behalf of the Working Classes: — Discourses on a A'eiv System of Society, with an Account of the Society of Neio Lanark (Pittsburgh, 1825) : — Robert Owen's Opening Speech, and his Reply to the Rev. A lexander Campbell ; the Debate on the Evidences of Christianity, the Social System, aiul Scep)ticism, between Mr. Owen and Mr. Campbell (Beth- any, 1829) : — i1/r. Owen's Memorial to the Republic of Mexico (Cincinnati, 1829) : — Book of the New Moral World (Lond. and N. Y.) : — The Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race (Lond. 1849). See Packard, Life of Robert Owen (Phila. 18GC) ; Martineau, Bioyraphical Sketches; A. J. Booth, Robert Owen, the Founder of Socialism in Enylund (1869); Noyes, Hist, of Socialism ; Em/lish Cyclop, s. v. ; A merican Cyclop. s. v.; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A me?: Authors, s. v. ; Drake, FAct. of Amer. Bioy. s. v. ; Hoefer, Nouv. Bioy. Generule, s. v.; Farrar, Ci'itical Hist, of Free Thought, p. 201 sq.; Morell, Hist, of Modern Philosophy, p. 293 sq. ; New-Englander, 1866, p. 399 ; A nier. Presbyt. Rev. April, 1866, p. 341.