think advisable. Please to thank the Master on my behalf when you see him; I don't doubt he has done his best for us."
Notwithstanding these repeated explanations, the College authorities appear to have been possessed by the fixed idea that Morris, as a man of means and a man of letters, could not be a Socialist in the same sense as his colleagues; and they persisted, with a sort of obstinate innocence, in believing that his address would be confined to generalities which could do no harm. When, they found that he had really meant what he said, their feeling was one which approached consternation. The meeting had, at all events, a success of scandal, and henceforth Morris was widely known as a declared Socialist.
In spite of all his labours as a peacemaker the year ended gloomily for him. The party had got rid of its moderate members. It had modified its name to that of the Social Democratic Federation in order to make its position as a Socialist body quite clear. It was about to start a weekly newspaper for the purpose of spreading its doctrines among the working classes. But internally it was already a distracted chaos. "I went to Merton for a little time on Thursday," says Morris's last letter of the year, "and found all well there. Now I'm off to see Fitzgerald (that's our editor) about 'Justice,' the prospects of which I am not sanguine over. The fact is, we really want a good steady business man over the D.F. affairs: a man who could give up most of his time and who wouldn't be excitable. For lack of it I fear we shall fall to pieces. I am much worried by the whole business just now: but in any case I shall try to save something out of the fire and keep a few together."
Throughout 1884 this desperate work of mingled
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