VIII
Arnold, who was anything but content with the seclusion of his life in Ostend and who longed for a "frequent appearance" before the public, heard of Gustav's misfortune. He resolved to return to England at once and, by climbing on Gustav's shoulders, to hoist himself into the pentarchy of European democracy. For in the meantime the European Central Committee[186] had been formed consisting of Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin and Darasz. Mazzini was its soul. Ruge thought he could smell a vacant position. In his Proscrit Mazzini had indeed introduced General Ernst Haug, his own invention, as the German Associate but for decency's sake it was not possible to nominate such a completely unknown person onto the Central Committee. Our Ruge was not unaware of the fact that Gustav had had dealings with Mazzini in Switzerland. He himself was acquainted with Ledru-Rollin but unfortunately Ledru-Rollin was not acquainted with him. So Arnold took up residence in Brighton and flattered and cajoled the unsuspecting Gustav, promised to help him found a Deutscher Zuschauer in London and even to undertake as a joint venture the democratic publication of the Rotteck-Welcker
Staats-Lexikon with Ruge paying the costs. At the same time he introduced our Gustav as a great man and collaborator into the local German paper which in accordance with his principles he always had on tap (this time it happened to be the Bremer Tages-Chronik of the "Friend of Light" minister Dulon). One good deed deserves another: Gustav presented Arnold to Mazzini. As Arnold's French was wholly incomprehensible there was nothing to prevent him from introducing himself to Mazzini as the greatest man in Germany and in particular as her greatest "thinker". The canny Italian idealist at once realised that Arnold was the man he was looking for, the homme sans conséquence[a] who would provide the German counter-signature of his anti-papal Bulls. Thus Arnold Ruge became the fifth wheel on the state coach of the European centre of democracy. When an Alsatian asked Ledru what on earth possessed him to make an ally of such a "bête", Ledru replied brusquely: "C'est l'homme de Mazzini."[3]
When Mazzini was asked why he became involved with Ruge,b a man bereft of all ideas, he answered slyly: " C'est précisément pourquoi je l'ai pris."c Mazzini himself had every reason to avoid people with ideas. Arnold Ruge, however, saw his wildest dreams come true and for the moment he even forgot Bruno Bauer.
When the time came for him to sign Mazzini's first manifesto he sadly recalled the days when he had presented himself to Professor Leo in Halle and old Folien in Switzerland as a Trinitarian on one occasion and as a humanist atheist on another. This time he was obliged with Mazzini to declare himself for God and against princes. However, Arnold's philosophic conscience had already been largely enfeebled by his association with Dulon and other clerics among whom he passed for a philosopher. Even in his best days our Arnold could not entirely suppress a certain foible for religion in general and moreover his "honest consciousness" kept on whispering to him: Sign, Arnold! Paris vaut bien une
messe.d One does not become fifth wheel on the coach of the provisional government of Europe in partibuse for nothing. Reflect, Arnold! All you have to do is sign a manifesto every two weeks, and even as a "membre du parlement allemand",[1] in the company of the greatest men in all Europe. And bathed in perspiration, Arnold signs. A curious joke, he murmurs. Ce n'est
que le premier pas qui coûte.[8] He had copied this last sentence into his notebook the previous night. However, Arnold had not yet come to the end of his trials. The European Central Committee had issued a series of manifestos to Europe, to the French, the Italians, the Wasserpolacken[187] and the Wallachians and now, following the great battle at Bronzell,[188] it was Germants turn. In his draft Mazzini attacked the Germans for their lack of cosmopolitan spirit, and in particular, for their arrogant treatment
"He is Mazzini's man."—Ed. The original has Ledru, probably a slip of the pen.— Ed. "I took him for that very reason."—Ed.
Paris is well worth a mass—the words attributed to Henry IV, King of France.— Ed.
In partibus infidelium—literally in parts inhabited by infidels. The words are added to the title of Roman Catholic bishops appointed to purely nominal dioceses in non-Christian countries.— Ed.
of Italian salami vendors, organ-grinders, confectioners, dormouse tamers and mouse-trap sellers. Taken aback, Arnold confessed that it was true. He went further. He declared his readiness to cede the Italian Tyrol and Istria to Mazzini. But this was not enough. He had not only to appeal to the conscience of the German people, but also to attack them where they were most vulnerable. Arnold received instructions that this time he was to have an opinion, as he represented the German element. He felt like the student Jobs.[3] He scratched himself thoughtfully behind his ear and after long reflection he stuttered: "Since the age of Tacitus the German bards sing baritone.b In winter they kindle fires on all the mountains so as to warm their feet."
The bards, the baritone and fires on all the mountains! That will certainly give German freedom a lift! thought Mazzini with a grin. The bards, the baritone, fires on all the mountains and German freedom went into the manifesto0 as douceurd for the German nation. To his astonishment Arnold Ruge had passed the examination and understood for the first time with what little wisdom the world is governed. From that moment on he despised Bruno Bauer more than ever for all his eighteen hefty tomes written while he was still young.
While Arnold in the wake of the European Central Committee was signing warlike manifestos with God, for Mazzini and against the princes, the peace movement was spreading not only in England, under the aegis of Cobden, but even beyond the North Sea. So that in Frankfurt am Main the Yankee swindler, Elihu Burritt, together with Cobden, Jaup, Girardin and the Red Indian Ka-gi-ga-gi-wa-wa-be-ta could hold a Peace Congress.[189] Our Arnold was just itching to avail himself of the opportunity to make one of his "frequent appearances" and to produce a manifesto. So he proclaimed himself a corresponding member of the Frankfurt Assembly and sent it an extremely confused Peace Manifesto[6]
translated out of Cobden's speeches into his own speculative Pomeranian. Various Germans drew Arnold's attention to the contradiction between his warlike attitude in the Central Commit-
The hero of K. A. Kortum's satirical poem Die Jobsiade.—Ed.
Probably ironical for Baritus, the battle song of the Teutons.—Ed. Manifesto of the Central Committee of European Democracy of November 13, 1850, published in La voix du proscrit, No. 4, November 17, 1850.—Ed.
tee and his peace manifesto Quakerism. He would reply: "Well, there you have the contradictions. That's the dialectic for you. In my youth I studied Hegel." His "honest consciousness" was eased by the thought that Mazzini knew no German and it was therefore not hard to pull the wool over his eyes.
Moreover, Arnold's relationship with Mazzini promised to become even more secure thanks to the protection of Harro
Harring who had just landed in Hull. For with Harring a new and highly symptomatic character steps onto the stage.
Endnotes
[3] Serfdom was abolished in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine annexed to France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as were the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, and the church estates.
[1] Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany was written after Charles Dana, one of the editors of the New-York Daily Tribune, had suggested to Marx, early in 1851, that he contribute to the newspaper. Being engaged in economic research, Marx asked Engels, on August 14, 1851, to write "a series of articles about Germany, from 1848 onwards". Engels agreed, and in the course of thirteen months he wrote 19 articles about the German revolution of 1848-49. He intended to write one more, concluding article, but it did not appear in the Tribune and most probably was not written at all. Engels used as the main source of reference a file of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, apart from some additional material given him by Marx, whom he constantly consulted and who read every article before mailing it. The series of articles, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany, was printed in the New-York Daily Tribune over the signature of Karl Marx, the paper's official correspondent. It was only in 1913, when the correspondence between Marx and Engels was published, that it became known that the articles had in fact been written by Engels. Daring Marx's and Engels' lifetime the work was never republished, apart from the first two articles, which were reprinted in the New-Yorker Abendzeitung, a newspaper of the German refugees in the United States, at the end of October 1851. The first separate edition of this work in English was prepared in 1896 by Marx's daughter, Eleanor Marx-Aveling; the same year a German translation appeared. In this and a number of later editions Marx was given as the author. In the New-York Daily Tribune the articles were printed under the general heading: Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, and numbered in Roman figures. In the 1896 English edition Eleanor Marx-Aveling provided subheadings which are preserved in this edition.
[8] The Customs Union (Steuerverein) was formed in May 1834; it included the German states of Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe, which were interested in commerce with Great Britain. In 1854 this separatist union disintegrated and its participants joined the Zollverein (see Note 5).
[3] Serfdom was abolished in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine annexed to France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as were the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, and the church estates.
[189] Quakers (or Society of Friends)—a religious sect founded in England during the seventeenth-century revolution and later widespread in North America. They rejected the Established Church with its rites and preached pacifist ideas. The "wet" Quakers, so called in opposition to the Orthodox or "dry" Quakers, were a trend which emerged in the 1820s and sought to renew the Quaker doctrines.
[6] The reference is to the uprising of the Silesian weavers on June 4-6, 1844, the first big class battle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in Germany, and to the uprising of the Bohemian workers in the second half of June 1844. The workers' movement, which was accompanied by factory and machine wrecking, was brutally suppressed by government troops.