e, the
former fell under the dominion of these ideas, and began to preach a
species of Aristocratic Socialism.[38] He denounced competition and
profit-seeking in commerce; the factory system; the capitalistic
organisation of industry. His scheme of a regenerated society, however,
was by no means so democratic as that imagined by Morris in "News from
Nowhere." It was a "new feudalism" with a king at the head of it and a
rural nobility of "the great old families," whose relations to their
tenantry are not very clearly defined.[39] Ruskin took some steps
towards putting into practice his plans for a reorganisation of labour
under improved conditions. "Fors Clavigera" consisted of a series of
letters to workingmen, inviting them to join him in establishing a fund
for rescuing English country life from the tyranny and defilement of
machinery. In pursuance of this project, the St. George's Guild was
formed, about 1870, Ruskin devoting to it 7,000 pounds of his own money.
Trustees were chosen to administer the fund; a building was bought at
Walkley, in the suburbs of Sheffield, for use as a museum; and the money
subscribed was employed in promoting co-operative experiments in
agriculture, manufacturing, and education.

In 1848 the widespread misery among the English working class, both
agricultural labourers and the operatives in cities, broke out in a
startling way in the Chartist movement. Sympathy with some of the aims
of this movement found literary expression in Charles Kingsley's novels,
"Yeast" and "Alton Locke", in his widely circulated tract, "Cheap Clothes
and Nasty"; in his letters in _Politics for the People_ over the
signature "Parson Lot"; in some of his ballads like "The Three Fishers";
and in the writings of his friends, F. D. Maurice and Thomas Hughes. But
the Christian Socialism of these Broad Churchmen was by no means of the
mediaeval type. Kingsley was an exponent of "Muscular Christianity." He
hated the asceticism and sacerdotalism of the Oxford set, and challenged
the Tractarian movement with all his might.[40] Neither was this
Christian Socialism of a radical nature, like Morris'. It limited itself
to an endeavour to alleviate distress by an appeal to the good feeling of
the upper classes; and by setting on foot trade-unions, co-operative
societies, and workingmen's colleges. Kingsley himself, like Ruskin,
believed in a landed gentry; and like both Ruskin and Carlyle, he
defended Governor Ey