d ability of the Essayists. Later in its history
only two persons have come forward who are in my opinion entitled in
their Fabian work to rank with the original leaders, to wit, Mr. Wells
and Mrs. Webb. Of the former I have said enough already. The present
chapter will be largely devoted to the influence of the latter.

[Illustration: MRS. SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909]

It must however be observed that in all their achievements it is
impossible to make a clear distinction between Mrs. Webb and her
husband. For example, the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission,
shortly to be dealt with, purported to be the work of Mrs. Webb and
her three co-signatories. In fact the investigation, the invention, and
the conclusions were in the fullest sense joint, although the draft
which went to the typist was in the handwriting of Mr. Webb. On some
occasions at any rate Mrs. Webb lectures from notes in her husband's
eminently legible handwriting: her own--oddly unlike her character--is
indecipherable without prolonged scrutiny even by herself. Sometimes, on
the other hand, it is possible to separate the work of the two. Mrs.
Webb, although elected a member in 1893, took practically no part in the
Fabian Society until 1906. It may be said, with substantial if not
literal accuracy, that her only contributions to the Society for the
first dozen years of her membership were a couple of lectures and Tract
No. 67, "Women and the Factory Acts." The Suffrage movement and the
Wells episode brought her to our meetings, and her lecture in "The Faith
I Hold" series, a description of her upbringing amongst the captains of
industry who built some of the world's great railways, was amongst the
most memorable in the long Fabian series. Still she neither held nor
sought any official position; and the main work of a Society is
necessarily done by the few who sit at its Committees often twice or
thrice a week.

The transformation of Mrs. Webb from a student and writer, a typical
"socialist of the chair," into an active leader and propagandist
originated in December, 1905, when she was appointed a member of the
Royal Commission on the Poor Law. The Fabian Society had nothing to do
with the Commission during its four years of enquiry, though as usual
not a few Fabians took part in the work, both officially and
unofficially. But when in the spring of 1909 the Minority Report was
issued, signed by Mrs. Webb and George Lansbury, both members of the
Society,