of the people.  From this point a new movement began.  It first took the form of local Fabian Societies.  They were succeeded by and merged into branches of the Independent Labour Party, which adopted everything Fabian except its peculiar political tactics.  A few years later the Labour Party followed, more than Fabian in its toleration in the matter of opinions, and virtually, though not formally, Fabian in its political policy.  No doubt something of the sort would have happened had there never been a Lancashire campaign, but this campaign may be fairly described as the first step in an evolution, the end of which is not yet in sight.

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Her lectures in the Lancashire campaign and the formation of the branches were Mrs. Besant’s last contributions to the Socialist movement.  Early in November she suddenly and completely severed her connection with the Society.  She had become a convert to Theosophy, which at that time accepted the Buddhist doctrine that spiritual conditions alone mattered, and that spiritual life would flourish as well in the slum amidst dirt and starvation as in the comfortable cottage, and much better than in the luxurious mansion.  Twentieth-century theosophy has receded from that position, and now advocates social amelioration, but Mrs. Besant thought otherwise in 1890.  Some twenty years later she lectured on several occasions to the Society, and she joined her old friends at the dinner which celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its foundation, but in the interval her connection with it completely ceased.

The Fabian Society and British Socialism owe much to Mrs. Besant for the assistance she gave it during five important years.  Her splendid eloquence, always at our service, has seldom been matched, and has never been surpassed by any of the innumerable speakers of the movement.  She had, when she joined us, an assured position amongst the working-class Radicals in London and throughout the country; and through her Socialism obtained a sympathetic hearing in places where less trusted speakers would have been neglected.  She was not then either a political thinker or an effective worker on committees, but she possessed the power of expressing the ideas of other people far better than their originators, and she had at her command a certain amount of political machinery—­such as an office at 63 Fleet Street, and a monthly magazine, “Our Corner”—­which was very useful.  Her departure was a serious loss, but it came at a moment of rapid expansion, so rapid that her absence was scarcely felt.

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