organisations in theory, created
in practice a secret society quite according to the rules of
Carbonarism--a hierarchy which was in total contradiction to the
anti-authority tendencies of the society. According to the secret
statutes of the "Alliance" three grades were recognised--(1) "The
International Brethren," one hundred in number, who formed a kind of
sacred college, and were to play the leading parts in the soon
expected, immediate social revolution, with Bakunin at their head.
(2) "The National Brethren," who were organised by the International
Brethren into a national association in every country, but who
were allowed to suspect nothing of the international organisation.
(3) Lastly came the secret international alliance, the pendant to the
public alliance, operating through the permanent Central Committee.

If the "Alliance" made rapid progress in the first year of its
existence, and quickly spread into Switzerland, the South of France,
and large parts of Spain and Italy, and even found adherents in
Belgium and Russia, this was certainly not due to the playing at
secret societies affected by the International Brethren. It is
probably not a mistake to see in the growth of the first Anarchist
organisation first and foremost a natural reaction against the stiff
rule of the London General Council; but at the same time the Anarchism
of Proudhon contained (contradictory as it may sound) in many respects
an element of moderation, and was far more adapted to the limits of
the _bourgeois_ intellect than the tendencies of the Social Democracy,
which demand a full participation in party interests and party life.
Just as we find later, so also we find now at the time of the
"Alliance," numerous elements in the Anarchist ranks belonging to the
superior artisan and lower middle class. We therefore find strong
Anarchist influences even within the "International" before the
"Alliance" flourished. Thus one of the main events of the Brussels
Congress early in September, 1868, was a proposal of Albert Richard, a
follower of Bakunin, to found a bank of mutual credit and exchange
quite after the manner of Proudhon. In the discussion upon it
prominent representatives of Anarchist ideas took part, such as
Eccarius, Tolain, and others. The Congress, however, buried the
proposed statute in its sections--the last honor for Proudhon's much
harassed project.

But in the congress of the next year the Anarchists made quite another
kind