Modern democracy does not desire that kings or priests shall rule; but it does require that they shall on State occasions and in the performance of their office, be clad in kingly and priestly robes, and by their proceedings enrich the dignity of public life, and the beauty of public worship.
THE DEMOCRATIC IDEALS: SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL REFORM The rise of Socialism in the 'eighties not only diverted the attention of working-class leaders from political reform, but it substituted for the destruction of monarchy and the House of Lords a reconstruction of society as the goal of democracy; and the Socialist teaching has been of enduring and penetrating influence.
Fifty years earlier in the nineteenth century, Robert Owen had preached a Socialist crusade with strenuous persuasion--but, ignoring politics, he outlived the temporary success of his cause.

The utopian Socialism of Owen flourished and died, as Chartism, under different treatment, flourished and died.
The "scientific" Socialism of Karl Marx was planned on stronger foundations.

It brought a message of hope; it revealed how the change was to be wrought that would "emancipate the workers of the world from the slavery of wage service"; and it insisted that this change was inevitable.
On the Continent, and more particularly in Germany, the Social Democratic Party has gained an enormous working-class support, and every election adds to its strength.
In England the Social Democratic Federation--now the Social Democratic Party--was founded in 1884 by Mr.H.M.

Hyndman; but in spite of its untiring efforts, it has never won the sympathy of the trade unions, nor the confidence of the working-class electorate.

Its Parliamentary candidatures rarely attract attention, and it is not a force in Labour politics.