It was in that way that Bradlaugh, for
instance, graduated from being a boy evangelist to being one of the
most formidable debaters in the House of Commons. And the only
opponents who have ever held their own against the Fabians in debate
have been men like Mr. Levy or Mr. Foote, who learnt in the same
school."
But lecturing was not the only activity of the Fabians. There were at
that time local Groups, each comprising one or a dozen constituencies in
London and its suburbs. The Groups in a corporate capacity did little:
but the members are reported as taking part in local elections, County
Council, School Board, and Vestry, in the meetings of the London Liberal
and Radical Union, the National Liberal Federation, the Metropolitan
Radical Federation, the Women's Liberal Federation, and so on. This was
the year of the first London County Council Election, when the
Progressive Party, as it was subsequently named, won an unexpected
victory, which proved to be both lasting and momentous for the future of
the Metropolis. The only overt part taken by the Fabian Society was its
"Questions for Candidates," printed and widely circulated before the
election, which gave definiteness and point to the vague ideas of
Progressivism then in the air. A large majority of the successful
candidates had concurred with this programme. A pamphlet by Sidney Webb,
entitled "Wanted a Programme," not published but printed privately, was
widely circulated in time for the meeting of the National Liberal
Federation at Birmingham, and another by the same author, "The Progress
of Socialism," stated to be published by "the Hampstead Society for the
Study of Socialism," is reported as in its second edition.
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