‘A Live Socialist’

Abstract

From A. S. and E. M. Sidgwick, Henry Sidgwick (London: Macmillan, 1906) pp. 497–8. Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge and author of works on ethics and political economy. Shaw delivered a paper, The Transition to Social Democracy’, at a meeting in Bath of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on 7 September 1888. The paper was published in Our Corner in November 1888 and in Fabian Essays in Socialism the following year. Sidgwick’s account of the paper comes from his journal entry for 8 September. Shaw recalled the occasion as follows: ‘Henry Sidgwick, a follower of Mill, rose indignantly … and declared that I had advocated nationalisation of land; that nationalisation of land was a crime; and that he would not take part in a discussion of a criminal proposal. With that he left the platform’ (Appendix 1, ‘Memoranda by Bernard Shaw’, in Edward R. Pease, The History of the Fabian Society [London: A. C. Fifield, 1916] pp. 258–9).