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Owen and no more was heard of the grant to Owen. He returned by the United States, and held a public discussion at Cincinnati on 1 April 1829, dined with President Jackson and the secretary of state, Van Buren, and brought back pacific messages from them to the English foreign secretary, Lord Aberdeen, who gave him an interview.

Owen's schemes had failed, as might have been expected, even upon his own principles. He had laid the greatest stress at New Lanark upon the necessity of forming character' in infancy, and he might have inferred that miscellaneous collections of unprepared people would not have the necessary qualities for success in new undertakings. He now set about propagating his doctrine by lectures, and by promoting various associations. A 'London Co-operative Society' had been started in 1824, with rooms in Burton Street, Burton Crescent, where discussions were held, afterwards transferred to Chancery Lane (, ii. 113). Here J. S. Mill and Charles Austen and others had hand-to-hand fights with the 'Owenites' (, Autobiography, p. 123-5). The 'Co-operative Magazine' was started in January 1826, and gave accounts of the New Harmony" community. It was published during the next three years as a sixpenny monthly. In 1830 it gave way to the 'British Co-operator' and the Co-operative Miscellany,' and other journals expounded Owen's theories" (, ii. 123, 136, 129). Many societies were started, and congresses'—the name is said to have been then first applied to such gatherings—were frequently held in 1829, and for some years later. Owen held meetings; he gave Sunday lectures at the Mechanics' Institute in Southampton Buildings, until objections arose, and afterwards at the Institute of the Industrious Classes,' and in Burton Street. In 1832 he started a scheme which caused much excitement. He had published since 14 April 1832 a penny paper called 'The Crisis,' and in that periodical he announced in June the formation of an association to promote the exchange of all commodities upon the only 'equitable principle' of giving equal values of labour. To carry out this, an Equitable Labour Exchange' was opened on 3 Sept. 1832 at a building in Gray's Inn Road, called the Bazaar. It had belonged to one Bromley, who had pressed Owen to use it for a new society, and Owen had thought it suitable for his experiment, which had already been partly set going elsewhere. Any goods might be deposited in it; labour notes, which had been elaborately contrived to avoid forgery, were given in exchange, and the goods deposited might be bought in the same currency. The system was exceedingly crude, and indeed scarcely intelligible. There was, however, a rush to the exchange. A large amount of deposits was made, and the example was imitated, especially at Birmingham. Difficulties soon arose. Bromley made exorbitant claims for rent, though Owen had understood that he had offered his premises gratuitously. It was determined to move the exchange to Blackfriars. Bromley in January 1833 made a forcible entry into the premises, and Owen paid large sums to settle the matter. Bromley tried to appropriate the scheme himself, but soon failed. The exchange was moved to Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, where Owen, helped by his son Robert Dale Owen, continued to lecture for some time, and a new constitution was framed. It only survived for a short time; Owen made up a deficiency of 2,500l, for which he held himself to be morally, though he was not legally, responsible.

Owen's activity continued for several years, and had a great effect in stimulating the co-operative movement in the country, though exciting comparatively little public interest. He took part in the co-operative congresses, of which seven met from 1830 to 1834, and in the succeeding 'socialist congresses,' of which there were fourteen from 1835 to 1846, and was frequently chairman (, ii. 182-96 for a list of these congresses). He took the part of the Dorset labourers convicted in 1834, whose case caused much excitement at the time. The chief organ of the party was the New Moral World,' a weekly journal by Robert Owen and his disciples, which was continued from 1834 to 1841. It called itself the organ of the 'Association of all Classes of all Nations,' and at a later period the 'Gazette of the Universal Community Society of Rational Religionists.' The early volumes contained many communications from Owen. A 'Book of the New Moral World' by Owen himself appeared in seven parts (with some changes of title) between 1826 and 1844. It contains some of the fullest statements of his doctrines. Owen's expectations became rasher and vaguer as his real influence declined. Mr. Holyoake gives an account of his activity as a travelling lecturer as late as 1838 (i. 102). He had, however, been nearly forgotten by the general public when, in 1840, he was presented to the queen by Lord Normanby, who was denounced on the occasion (24 Jan. 1840) by Bishop Philpotts in the House of Lords. The bishop had to admit that Owen's character was irreproachable, though his principles were abominable. Owen was after-