ate of complete destitution. These
persons, then, forgetting the "doctrine of circumstances," and everything
but the result, and the promises of Mr. Owen, censured him in no measured
language, and cannot be convinced of the purity of his intentions in
_that_ affair. Indeed, they have always at hand such a multiplicity of
facts to prove that Mr. Owen himself mainly contributed to the failure,
that one must be blinded by that partiality which so known a
philanthropist necessarily inspires, not to be convinced that, however
competent he may be to preach the doctrines of co-operation, he is
totally incompetent to carry them into effect.

But Mr. Owen has also declared in public that "the New Harmony experiment
succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations." Now what may be his
peculiar notions of success, the public are totally ignorant, as he did
not think fit to furnish any explanation; but this the public do know,
that between the former and the latter statement there is a slight
discrepancy.

Some of Mr. Owen's friends _in London_ say, that every thing went on well
at Harmony until he gave up the management--that is, that he governed the
community for the first few weeks, the short period of its prosperity, and
that it declined only from the time of his ceding the dictatorship. Now
Mr. Owen _himself_ says, that he only interfered when he observed they
were going wrong; implying that he did not interfere in the commencement,
but did so subsequently. These are contradictions which would require a
good deal of mystification to reconcile in appearance. All the
communicants whom I met in America, although they differed on almost every
other point, yet agreed on this,--that Mr. Owen interfered from first to
last during his stay at Harmony, and that at the time when he first
quitted it nothing but discord prevailed.

Very little experience of a residence in the backwoods convinced Mr. Owen
that he was not in the situation most consonant with his feelings. He had
been, when in Europe, surrounded by people who regarded him as an oracle,
and received his _ipse dixit_ as a sufficient solution for every
difficulty. His situation at Harmony was very different; for most of the
persons who came there had been accustomed to exercise their judgment in
matters of practice, and this Mr. Owen is said not to have been able to
endure. He would either evade, or refuse, answering direct questions,
which naturally made men so accustomed to