1870
DEAR FRED,
Enclosed a letter from Kugelmann[2] which significantly clarifies the political MYSTERIES of the present war.[3] He is in the right with his criticism of the proclamation of the Brunswick meeting[3] SOME COPIES of which I enclose. I am also sending you the RéveiL[4] You will find in it the first half of the acte d'accusationh presented before the Supreme Court at Blois[5]; what a poor figure the French CONSPIRATORS cut, compared to the FENIANS,[6] as they transform themselves into mouchards0 without the least provocation. The paper is also interesting on account of the leading article by old Delescluze. Although he is opposed to the government, it's just unadulterated chauvinism, car la France est le seul pays de l'idéed
(namely, the idea it has of itself). These republican chauvinists are only indignant because the actual incarnation of their idol— Louis Bonaparte with his long nose and his stock exchange rigging —does not correspond to their FANCY. The French deserve a good hiding. If the Prussians win, then centralisation of the STATE POWER will be beneficial for the centralisation of the German working class. German predominance would then shift the centre of gravity of the West European workers' movement from France to Germany, and you need only to compare developments in the two countries from 1866 to the present day to realise that the German working class is superior to the French both in theory and organisation. Its predominance over the French on the international stage would also mean the predominance of our theory over Proudhon's, etc.
Finally, I enclose a review of my book from Hildebrand's journal for economics and statistics.[3] The state of my health does not really predispose me to merriment, but this essay brought the tears to my eyes, bona fide tears of laughter. With the reaction and the DOWNFALL of the heroic age of philosophy in Germany, the 'petty bourgeois' latent in the German citizen has once again come to the fore — in philosophy nonsense worthy of Moses Mendelssohn; the smart-alecky, bad-tempered carping of wiseacres and know-alls. And they now want to dissolve political economy into a lot of rubbish about legal conceptsl That goes one better than the 'logarithm of stimuli'.[7] As Schiller, a competent judge in this sphere, has already noted, the philistine resolves all questions by making them 'a matter of conscience'.
Apropos! A Yankee JOURNAL which I was reading yesterday in the Central Council is publishing a series of articles about capital, etc. It refers to my bookb among others. According to them I believe that the worker must work for a certain portion of the day for his own needs, and that therefore the work over and above that time, which I call SURPLUS LABOUR, forms the surplus value and hence the source of profit, etc. There is something in this, no doubt, they continue, but it is not the whole truth. For instance, the goods produced by a manufacturer= 0 for him until they have been sold. Let us assume then that the REAL VALUE (he means cost price) of clothes, etc. = a By selling them to the merchant the manufacturer adds b, and this is then increased by c by the different businessmen through whose hands the articles pass.
Therefore: VALUE^O. The increments= b + c. VALVE IN USE, THEREFORE, = a+ b+ c. Therefore, surplus value = excess of use value (!) over value. This really beats the 'FORMULE' which Frankel learnt in Paris! [8]
Just interrupted while writing. Taran,c the French Italian, drove up in a CAB (he's the man from The Pall Mall Gazette). He brought back the things by Lassalle, etc., that I had lent him. He is going to Paris as war-correspondent. Inquired whether I would like to go to Prussia in that capacity, or if not, whether I could propose anyone else. Through him I am now so FAR in contact with the Pall 20 1870
Mall that if I want to write SOMETHING political or you SOMETHING military during the farce, it would be accepted and paid for INTO
THE BARGAIN.
Yesterday I heard from Perret in Geneva that o u r resolution a
granting recognition to the Genevan Comité Fédéral Romand, in preference to the counter-committee formed by Bakunin, came like a bombshell to the fellows.[9] They telegraphed Bakunin at once. At the next congress the GENERAL COUNCIL is to be put in the dock on account of this coup. It is now absolutely essential that Dupont should at long last send me the COPIES of our resolutions" concerning the ALLIANCE.[10] D O press him on this score immédiatement and sérieusement in my name.
T h e GENERAL COUNCIL yesterday commissioned me to draw u p an address. 0 By no means welcome IN MY PRESENT STATE of liver troubles and DULLNESS. If it does not improve, Allen and Maddison, whom I saw yesterday, advise m e to go to the seaside, the East coast of England, in fact, because it's fresher there.
BEST COMPLIMENTS TO MRS LIZZY AND FRIENDS.
Your
K. M.
Apropos! Hasn't Wilhelm's d stupidity excelled itself in his last Volksstaat ? e
a K. Marx, 'General Council Resolution on the Federal Committee of Romance Switzerland'. - b K. Marx, 'The International Working Men's Association and the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy', 'The General Council of the International Working Men's Association to the Central Bureau of the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy'. - c K. Marx, 'First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War'. -d Wilhelm Liebknecht's - e This presumably refers to the 'Politische Uebersicht' column in Der Volksstaat, No. 57, 17 July 1870.
2. Engels to Marx. 22 July
2
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 22 July 1870
Dear Moor,
Three cheers for Kugelmann! It is obvious that he did not go to school for nothing. His hypothesis is very much in the spirit of the protagonists and explains everything.[3] If it is correct in actual fact, then Bismarck at least has bitten off more than he can chew. Those worthies have obviously managed to set off a full-scale national war in Germany. The numerous tâtonnements with regard to the cession of German territory, Luxembourg, etc., by which means Louis Bonaparte tried, as usual, to accustom the public in advance to the approaching fait accompli, have had quite the opposite effect on ordinary Germans. They have obviously made up their minds this time to put a stop to all such tricks once and for all. This being so, and considering the attitude of the two armies and of stubborn old William,0 a pretend-war is not possible. On ira au fondd
The sudden vacillation and uncertainty evident in the French operations — obviously planned for the middle of this week — is proof that Louis Bonaparte realises how badly he has miscalcu-lated. The swift intervention of the South Germans and then the certainty that he will have the whole German people on his hands has frustrated the attempt to launch a surprise attack on Mainz with his artillery and then to form a spearhead in the direction of Würzburg, with no more than half his forces mobilised. If he can now attack at all, he will have to deploy all his forces. But there's still time for that. The order to form the fourth regimental battalions did not go out before the 15th or 16th. Their units consist of four companies of the three field battalions of each regiment, so they must first be increased to 6-8 companies and supplemented by reserves. The men on leave were called up in Paris on the 19th and 20th, the trained reserves on 21 and 22 July, and the untrained reserves receive their papers tomorrow. The regiments will not be complete until the first two categories have joined them. And this means that — skirmishes apart — the campaign will have to be delayed to the middle of next week at the earliest. By then, however, the Germans may be so strong that Bonaparte will find it necessary to await the fourth battalions, and that means a delay of another 8-14 days. And by then he'll be fou tu*
Yesterday I was told by a local German philistine that he had been travelling on a train in Westphalia last Saturday with a Prussian general who had taken him for an Englishman and had spoken to him in English. He said: *'It is true enough, we are about ten days behindhand, but if during ten days you do not hear that we have suffered a great defeat, we shall soon have your sympathies.'* On being asked what he meant, he said: *'The sympathies of the English, you know, are always on the side of success.'*
Mobilisation began on the 16th in Northern Germany and on the 17th in Bavaria. The reserves and Landwehr[11] infantry can be at the ready in about 8 days and the rest will be available about 13 days from the start of mobilisation. That means that the entire infantry will be ready on the 25th and everything else on the 30th. But since the reserves are joining up in great numbers without being ordered to, the field army will be ready even sooner. It is certain that the 7th, 8th, 11th and 12th army corps are standing on the Rhine. The Guard has also left Berlin, as I hear from Borchardt who arrived from there yesterday. I suppose it is on its way to Bavaria to serve under the handsome Crown Prince.b The transport of troops from the East through Berlin was due to begin yesterday. From Sunday or Monday on Bonaparte will be able to occupy the Palatinate at the most, but he will no longer be able to cross the Rhine unless the other side makes crass errors. From the end of next week the Germans can attack and start an army rolling towards France that will smash everything Bonaparte can put in its way, albeit after fierce battles. As things stand at present, I do not believe that the campaign can possibly end well for Bonaparte.
I suppose I would like to write 2 articles weekly on the war for The Pall Mall Gazette for good cash payment.[12] I shall do a trial piece on military organisation. 3-4 guineas per article ought to be right; the Guardianc used to pay me 2 guineas and would have paid even more.[13] If you can arrange that tomorrow, let me know right away. To go to the Prussian headquarters as a correspondent has all sorts of drawbacks, the chief one being called Stieber, and besides I would have a less criticial vantage-point there than here.
You can see from the enclosed cuttings what we have been engaged on here. The Guardian report is by us[14]; what a PENNY-A-LINER makes of it is shown by the accompanying report from the Courier" — enough to make you die laughing. It must be the first time that French workers have been fanatically applauded by German philistines and shop-assistants in Manchester.
I have written to Dupont and intend to see him this evening. Where do you plan to go to the SEASIDE? South of the Humber there is nothing on the east coast. To the north there is Scarborough — dear and crowded, and Bridlington Quay. If you decide on the latter, we could meet there. I shall send you the £40 as soon as you wish.
I wish the damned panic would abate somewhat; I need to sell some SHARES.
I have saved Rosier up for later.b
The last issue of Wilhelm's Volksstaat has not reached me.c
Particularly annoying at the present time.
Best greetings to you all from Lizzie and myself.
Your
F. E.
Kugelmann returned herewith. Did you read how Bonaparte is now flirting with the Marseillaise and the noble Thérésad gives a performance of it every evening with her grosse voix de sapeur''?
The Marseillaise sung by Thérésa — that is the spitting image of Bonapartism. Ugh!
3. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 26 July
IN LONDON
[London,] 26 JULY 1870 1 Maitland Park Road, Haverstock Hill, N.W.
Dear Sir,
I must first of all ask your forgiveness for my delay in replying to you. Your letter arrived on Thursday3 at 6 p.m.; I had just left London for a TRIP IN the COUNTRY.
However, I would not have been able to join in a public AddressI5 because the General Council of the International Working Men's Association, of which I am a member, had already charged me with the task of composing a similar Address.b The piece had been written already, submitted for discussion and was approved unanimously last Tuesday. It was to have appeared in The Times today, but was suppressed, probably because it contained a hit at Russia. However, there is some prospect of its appearing in the Pall MalU Paris is now in a state of siege. We have organs at our disposal in all other West European countries and in the United States.
Should the Address be published here you will discover that its political viewpoint (and it is this we are concerned with in the first instance) coincides with your own, however widely our social views may diverge. AT ALL EVENTS, I am convinced that a genuine power of resistance to the return of national antagonisms and the entire system of present-day diplomacy can only be found in the working class.
However that may be, I am quite prepared to have further discussions on this important subject. Please let me know whether and when you might honour me with a visit, or when I can find you at home.
Yours sincerely,
Karl Marx
Voprosy istorii KPSS, No. 2, Moscow, 1958 Published in English for the first time
4. Marx to Engels. 28 July
4
MARX T O ENGELS [1 6]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 28 July 1870
DEAR FRED,
I forwarded your article" at once to the Pall Mall EDITOR (F. Greenwood), with the request to return it immediately if he does not wish to print it. I have n o doubt that, in that event, we could place it with The Times or The Daily News. The Times had given us every reason, via Eccarius, to believe it would print o u r (i.e. the International's) ADDRESS.[13] It did not appear, probably because of a HIT AT RUSSIA. W h e r e u p o n (MONDAY LASTC) I sent the thing off without delay to the Pall Mall and also wrote to the EDITOR,[17] in accordance with the agreement with their WAR CORRESPONDENT (Thieblin, now in Luxembourg), about the MILITARY CORRESPONDENCE. Requested an ANSWER. N O REPLY. Nor was the Address printed. So today on sending your article to the EDITOR of the Pall Mall, I wrote a curt letter, SPEAKING ONLY OF THE MILITARY CORRESPONDENCE, i.e. I simply asked whether yes or no.
Last Tuesday the General Council ordered a thousand COPIES of the Address to be run off. Today I expect the page proofs.
T h e singing of the Marseillaise in France is a parody just like the whole SECOND EMPIRE. But the d o g d at least feels that 'Partant pour la Syrie'[18] WOULD NOT DO. In Prussia, on the other hand, such buffoonery is not necessary. 'Lord, in Thee is all my trust',[19] sung by William I, with Bismarck on the right and Stieber on the left, is the German Marseillaise ! As in 1812 sqq. The German philistine seems fairly enraptured, now that he can give free vent to his innate servility. W h o would have thought it possible that 22 years after 1848 a national war in Germany would be given such theoretical expression!
Fortunately, this whole demonstration stems from the middle class. T h e working class, with the exception of the direct adherents of Schweitzer, takes n o part in it. And fortunately, the WAR OF CLASSES in both countries, France and Germany, is so far advanced that no war ABROAD can seriously turn back the wheel of history.
By publishing the TREATY (on Belgium), Bismarck too has overstepped the mark.[20] Even London RESPECTABILITY no longer ventures to talk of the integrity of Prussia. Macaire et Co.! Incidentally, shortly before 1866, I recollect reading articles in the organ of the worthy Brass" and in the Kreuz-Zeitung, in which Belgium was denounced as a 'nest of Jacobins' (!) and its annexation by France was recommended. On the other hand, the moral indignation of John Bull is no less comic! RIGHT OF TREATIES! THE DEVIL! After all, it was Palmerston who made it a maxim of English policy that when you solemnly conclude a treaty, you do not necessarily swear to abide by it, and England has acted accordingly ever since 1830! ON ALL SIDES, nothing but war and immorality.
Charming of the Kreuz-Zeitung to demand that England should refuse to supply the French with coal, i.e. that she should violate the Anglo-French commercial treaty, i.e. declare war on France.[21]
That coal can be a military commodity is a fact that was vividly brought home to Pama by the opposition at the time. He fobbed them off with bad jokes. So the point is one that was by no means overlooked when the treaty was concluded. Urquhart wrote fierce denunciations about it during the negotiations. So if England does not declare war de prime abordb she must continue to supply the French with coal. As far as a declaration of war is concerned, that could produce some extremely serious ill-feeling between the POWERS THAT BE and the London proletariat. The mood of the workers here is DECIDEDLY against such ostentatious gestures.[22]
At last a letter from the Russians in Geneva.[23] I enclose it. Return it soon, SAY MONDAY NEXT,*c since I have to reply.
From the enclosed letter by E. Oswald (an Urquhartite, but relatively rationalised in a continental spirit), you can see that even the democrats wish to do something.d I have written to hime that I have already signed an Address of the INTERNATIONAL which, as far as the purely political aspect is concerned, puts forward essentially similar views. In further letters, yesterday and today, he insists that I should attend their MEETING in his house this afternoon. (He lives very near here.) He also sends me an extract from a letter by Louis Blanc.
5. Marx to Paul and Laura Lafargue. 28 July
However, I cannot possibly go at the moment. Who can guarantee that where Louis Blanc is, Karl Blind won't turn up also? I intend to go to Smith right away about the house.[24]
Salut
Your
K. M.
5
MARX TO PAUL AND LAURA LAFARGUE[25]
IN PARIS
[London,] 28 July 1870
My dear children,
You must excuse the long delay of my answer. You know I cannot stand heat. It weighs down my energies. On the other hand, I was overwhelmed with business, the German 'friends' firing at me a mitrailleuse[26] of letters which, under present circumstances, I could not decline answering at once.
You want of course to hear something of the war. So much is sure that L. Bonaparte has already missed his first opportunity. You understand that his first plan was to take the Prussians unawares and get the better of them by surprise. It is, in point of fact, much easier to get the French army — a mere soldiers' army till now — ready than the Prussian one which consists largely of the civilian element forming the Landwehr.[11] Hence, if Bonaparte, as he at first intended, had made a dash even with half-collected forces, he might have succeeded to surprise the fortress of Mayence, to push simultaneously forward in the direction of Würzburg, thus to separate Northern from Southern Germany, and so throw consternation amidst the camp of his adversaries. However, he has allowed this opportunity to slip. He saw unmistakable signs of the national character of the war in Germany and was stunned by the unanimous, quick, immediate adhesion of Southern Germany to Prussia. His habitude of hesitation, so much adapted to his old trade of conspirator planning coup d'état and plebiscites, got the upper hand, but this method will not do for war, which demands quick and unwavering resolution. He let his first plan slip and resolved to collect his full forces. Thus he lost his advantage of a first start, of surprise, while the Prussians have gained all the time necessary for mobilising their forces. Hence you may say that Bonaparte has already lost his first campaign.[27]
Whatever may now be the first incidents of the war, it will become extremely serious. Even a first great French victory would decide nothing, because the French army will now find on its way three great fortresses, Mayence, Coblenz, and Cologne, ready for a protracted defence. In the long run, Prussia has greater military forces to her disposal than Bonaparte. It may even be that on one side or the other she will be able to cross the French frontier and make 'le sol sacré de la patrie'*—according to the chauvinists of the Corps Législatif this sol sacré is situated only on the French side of the Rhine — the theatre of war!
Both nations remind me of the anecdote of the two Russian noblemen accompanied by two Jews, their serfs. Nobleman A strikes the Jew of Nobleman B, and B answers: 'Schlägst Du meinen Jud, schlag ich deinen Jud.'b So both nations seem reconciled to their despots by being allowed, each of them, to strike at the despot of the other nation.
In Germany the war is considered as a national war, because it is a war of defence. The middle class (not to speak of the Krautjunker-tumc) overdoes itself in manifestations of loyalty. One believes himself taken back to the times of 1812 sqq 'für Gott, König und Vaterland'd with the old donkey Arndt's: 'Was ist des Teutschen Vaterland'e!
The singing of the Marseillaise at the bidding of the man of December is of course a parody, like the whole history of the Second Empire. Still it shows that he feels that 'Partant pour la Syrie'is would not do for the occasion. On the other hand, that old damned ass, Wilhelm 'Annexander',g sings 'Jesus meine Zuversicht'[19]; flanked on the one side by 'larron'h Bismarck and on the other, by the 'policier' Stieber!
On both sides it is a disgusting exhibition.
Still there is this consolation, that the workmen protest in Germany as in France. In point of fact the war of classes in both countries is too far developed to allow any political war whatever to roll back for long time the wheel of history. I believe, on the contrary, that the present war will produce results not at all expected by the 'officials' on both sides.
I enclose two cuts from Liebknecht's Volksstaat. You will see that he and Bebel behaved exceedingly well in the Reichstag.[28]
For my own part, I should like that both, Prussians and French, thrashed each other alternately, and that — as I believe will be the case — the Germans got ultimately the better of it. I wish this, because the definite defeat of Bonaparte is likely to provoke Revolution in France, while the definite defeat of the Germans would only protract the present state of things for 20 years.
The English upper classes are full of moral indignation against Bonaparte at whose feet they have fawned for 18 years. Then they wanted him as the saviour of their privileges, of rents and profits. At the same time, they know the man to be seated on a volcano the which unpleasant position forces him to trouble peace periodically, and makes him — beside his parvenuship — an unpleasant bedfellow. Now they hope that to solid Prussia, protestant Prussia, Prussia backed by Russia, will fall the part of keeping down revolution in Europe. It would for them be a safer and more respectable policeman.
As to the English workmen, they hate Bonaparte more than Bismarck, principally because he is the aggressor. At the same time they say: 'The plague on both your houses'," and if the English oligarchy, as it seems very inclined, should take part in the war against France, there will be a 'tuck' at London. For my own part, I do everything in my power, through the means of the International, to stimulate this 'neutrality' spirit and to baffle the 'paid' (paid by the 'respectables') leaders of the English working class who strain every nerve to mislead them.
I hope the measures as to the houses within the fortification rayon will not hurt you.[29]
Thousand kisses to my sweet little Schnaps.b
Yours devotedly,
Old Nickc
6. Marx to Engels. 29 July
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 29 July 1870
Dear FRED,
You will see from the enclosed that so FAR the Pall Mall business is quite satisfactory and your first article (1) will appear this evening. The only reason for displeasure is that MR Greenwood (to whom I have not yet mentioned your name, BY THE BY) has made no reference to the TERMS even though IN MY FIRST LETTER TO HIM I made a specific inquiry about them. [1 7] O n the other hand, Thieblin (i.e. Taran) said to me on his departure for the Continent and at his LEAVETAKING from me that payment was made as a matter of course at the e n d of each month.
At all events it seems to me wisest TO GO ON for a few more articles so that we have a firm case before issuing an OFFICIAL NOTE on this punctum}[1]
I went to see Smith [24] yesterday. I learned there that no one in London made inquiries about you in Manchester, because your LANDLORD also has a SEAT near Manchester and desired to make his own inquiry there. However, it would be better to write to him and speed the matter up. At all events I understand that no 'third party' has intervened.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
7. Marx to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 29 July
Dear LIBRARY,[3]
Enclosed an extract from the Manifesto of the GENERAL COUNCIL taken from The Pall Mall Gazette of 28 July.a
Be so good as to insert a note in your translation in the Volksstaat that you received the Manifesto in English.*b This will indicate to our other correspondents that we had no time to send them translations.
Last Tuesdayc I translated the Reichstag protest of Bebel and yourself into English for the GENERAL COUNCIL. It was received with great acclamation.[31]
One further matter. Mr Karl Blind made a patriotic speech to a German meeting in the Sports Hall; this comedian represented as a vital, world-shaking event the fact that he, the German Brutus, had suspended his republicanism, sacrificing it on the altar of the fatherland for the duration of the war. That was Act I.
Act II: Karl Blind gives an account in his own hand in the London Deutsche Post of that same meeting, whose size, importance, etc., he exaggerates in his usual manner.
Act III: Karl Blind writes an anonymous letterd to The Daily News, in which he movingly depicts the overwhelming impact on the whole of Germany of the great speech made by Karl Blind at the meeting in the Sports Hall. All the German papers, he claims, have reproduced it. One of them, the Berlin Volks-Zeitung, even ventured (!) to print it in its entirety. (The fellow is a correspondent of the Volks-Zeitung.) Neither did Viennese papers allow the great event to pass them by without trace. (The fellow sent in a report himself to the Neue Freie Presse.*)
This is just one of a thousand instances in which this ant-lion
8. Engels to Marx. 31 July
strives to gull the English into believing that he is a sort of German Mazzini.
Salut
Your
K. M.
8
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 31 July 1870
Dear Moor,
Enclosed you will find the plan of the Prussian campaign.[3] Please get a CAB immediately and take it round to The Pall Mall Gazette, so that it can come out on Monday evening. It will make me and the P.M.G. tremendously famous. By Tuesday matters may have developed to the point where any ass can figure the business out. I do not know whether my No. I I b appeared on Saturday as the P.M.G. has not reached the clubs here yet. I am building a fair amount on this business, as it really wasn't easy to guess the plan. The deciding factor was the news that a cousin of Gumpert's, a company commander in the 77th regiment, the vanguard of the 7th Army Corps, set off from Aachen for Trier on 27 July. When I heard that everything fell into place.
In addition, it is essential for you to arrange with Greenwood for me to send him the articles [12] direct, so that they can appear the same day. Delay is now fatal for articles of this sort. My idea is to send him an article twice a week on the average, more frequently if the matter is urgent, less often when there is a lull. In between I would send shorter notices when opportune, which he could make use of as he wished.
It is indeed becoming increasingly humiliating for us to be
a F. Engels, Notes on the War.—HI. - b F. Engels, Notes on the War.— //.
waging war under William.3 But it is still a good thing that he should be making himself so monstrously ridiculous with his divine mission and his Stieber, without whom German unity could hardly be achieved. The Address of the Internationalb was printed here on Saturday in the Tory Courier.0 Had it been another day of the week, the other papers would have published it too, but the Saturday advertisements were against it. The Address will teach the populus of all classes that nowadays the workers are the only ones to have a real FOREIGN POLICY. It is very good and it was certainly only because of the Russians that The Times declined to accept it.d Both the governments and the bourgeoisie will be greatly astonished after the war when they see how the workers simply resume their activities as if nothing had interrupted them at all.
My confidence in the military achievements of the Germans grows daily. We really seem to have won the first serious encounter. The French do not yet appear to have properly grasped the potential of the breech-loader.
Moltke's game is very audacious. On my calculations he will not be • ready with his troop concentrations before Tuesday or Wednesday^ From Aachen to the frontier is about 20 German miles, i.e. 4-5 hard marches, especially in this heat. That means that the whole 7th Corps can scarcely be on the Saar before tomorrow, and the main battle may already take place today. At all events it is so FINELY CUT that 24 hours either way can make an enormous difference. The battle itself will probably be fought out on the Saar between Merzig and Saarbrücken.[32]
It is good that the French have attacked first on German territory. If the Germans follow on their heels after repelling an invasion, this will certainly not have the same effect in France as it would have done had they marched into the country without being invaded first. This means that on the French side the war will remain more Bonapartist in character.
The ultimate success — i.e. a German victory — is quite beyond doubt in my view. However, Moltke's plan betrays his absolute assurance that he will have overwhelming superiority in the very first battle. We shall probably know by Tuesday evening whether he has not miscalculated. Moltke often reckons without his William.
The more the German philistine cringes before his William who trusts in God and cringes before Him, the more insolent he becomes towards France. The old pack is once again in full cry on the subject of Alsace-Lorraine — the Augsburgera in the lead. The peasants of Lorraine, however, will soon show the Prussians that the matter is not so easy.
You are quite right about the treaty.b People are not quite as stupid as Bismarck imagines. The only good thing about it is that the whole mess will now come out into the open and then there will be an end to all the duplicity of Bismarck and Bonaparte.[20]
In the whole neutrality business, coal included,[21] the Germans are acting like children, quite in accord with history. These are questions that have never faced the people. Who indeed has ever inquired about them?
The Russians returned herewith.[23] Once a Russian, always a Russian. What an idiotic piece of gossip-mongering. Six Russians quarrelling among themselves as if the mastery of the globe depended on the outcome. And it does not even include the accusations against Bakunin, merely their whining about cliquish-ness in Switzerland. At all events our people seem to be honest in so far as this is possible for a Russian; but I would still proceed cautiously with them. In the meantime it is quite good to know all the gossip; it is after all a fact of life in the diplomacy of the proletariat.
Through the fault of the Post Office my copies of the Volksstaat arrive quite irregularly. The issue of the 23rd had a band round it with a post mark from the 19th ; so that's the sort of trick they get up to. Many issues have not arrived at all. In the last two Wilhelmc
was not very actively stupid; he was sheltering behind the FRATERNISATION of the French and German workers.
Schorlemmer has two brothers in the Hesse division, one-year NCOs.
Have heard nothing more from Smith.[24] Many thanks for your efforts. If I hear nothing this week, I shall write Smith a fairly blunt letter. What a crazy idea for an aristocrat like that to gather his own information on the spot here! If he had left it to his BANKER, he would have had all he needed in three days. But the man has to act the BUSINESSMAN. The ox! Best regards to you all. Lizzie's knee is well on the way to recovery.
Dupont had let himself be landed with a house, probably through Mothet, situated in the unhealthiest of neighbourhoods, close by the stinking river. However, I have seen to it that he has taken another. But do not say anything about it to him, it is all settled. He has not brought Mothet to me again, however. Serraillier will have written to him about it, and Dupont himself seems to feel relief now that he hasn't got the fellow round his neck day and night.
Your
F. E.
[Notes attached to the letter][33]
Army of the North German Confederation[3]
1 Guards corps and 12 corps of the line:
summa 114 infantry regiments àa 3 battalions = 342 bat. Chasseurs and rifle battalions = 16 " Hesse division: 4 reg. à 2 bat. & 2 bat.
of Chasseurs = 10
Battalions of the line 368
Landwehrb
93 reg. à 2 bat. and 12 odd bat. = 198 bat. Hesse, estimate 6 " 204 "
Total bat. already organised 572
Reserves are to be set up as soon as the field army and the Landwehr have been mobilised, and without any further specific orders:
Troops of the line: the 4th battalions of 114 regiments 114 Landwehr: the 3rd " "93 " 93
779 battalions The officers for these reserves are to be picked out at the start of mobilisation; they can be ready 4-6 weeks after the order to mobilise has been issued. They are the best battalions in the whole army. As soon as they have been set up a start will be made with the 5th battalions of the line and the 4th of the Landwehr, etc. Hence the organisation is as follows:
Troops of the line 368 bat. à 1,000 men 368,000 Landwehr 204 " à 800 " 163,200
531,200
Envisaged for organisation:
Troops of the line 114 bat. à 1,000 men 114,000 Landwehr 93 " à 800 " 74,400 188,400»
Infantry total 719,600
= 80
= 36 a
= 14
130 bat.=ca. 110,000
I have kept the figures of the South Germans down to the minimum. I have left cavalry and artillery completely out of account just so as to compare the relative strength of the infantry, since this is what decides the issue.
The French have:
Guards — 33 bat.; line — 100 reg. à 3 bat. 333 bat. Zouavesb—3 reg.=9 bat. Turcos [3 5]—3 reg.=9 bat. Foreign, etc., 5 bat. 23 " Chasseurs-à-piedc 20 "
376 bat.
There are 8 companies to the battalion; if, as in 1859, the 24 companies of the battalion are divided into 4 battalions à 6 companies, then the company can be raised to 150 men, forming the 4th reserve battalion, which makes in 115 regiments the total of
115 bat.
491 bat.
If much of the Garde mobile[31]* is organised, it comes to 100
Infantry: 580,000 men=591 bat.
9. Marx to Engels. 1 August
Anything additional must be newly formed by officers withheld from the field army or recalled to active service. At the same time the Garde mobile cannot be deployed in the field on its own for the next 2-3 months at the least, since it has only exercised 2 weeks a year since 1868. The units of the French army (of the line), on the other hand, are too small to be able to contain large numbers of untrained or under-trained reserves. The entire new system has only existed since 1868. Incidentally, I must await further information about this new system, which leaves the internal organisation of the French army almost entirely unchanged. It may be that all sorts of things are being done on the quiet. At any rate, the units that have been trained only suffice to put the organised battalions of the line on a war-footing.
9
MARX TO ENGELS[37]
IN MANCHESTER
{London,] 1 August 1870
In great haste
DEAR FRED,
Your two last articles first-rate.a I galloped round to the Pall Mall at once. But since Greenwood was out, nothing could be decided. He will, however, be back before noon.
I shall write to him today that in future you will send articles direct to him b (I SHALL NOW NAME YOU).
As for the 'Russians',[23] they will learn that my attitude is one of à corsaire corsaire et demi}'
The OLIGARCHY here wants an English war on behalf of Prussia. Having curried favour with Bonaparte for 18 years and having quite used him up as the SAVIOUR OF RENTS AND PROFITS, they now hope to find A
MORE RESPECTABLE AND SAFER POLICEMAN OF THE CONTINENT i n r e l i a b l e , God-fearing monarchical Prussia. But the fellows should watch out. Ordinary people everywhere here are already saying: THAT DAMNED
GERMAN DYNASTY OF OURS WANTS FOR ITS FAMILY PURPOSES TO INVOLVE US IN THE
CONTINENTAL WAR!
The local Figaro, of which I have sent a typical issue to Dupont, is an English paper, founded by the French Embassy.
Bismarck for his part has also assiduously bought up support in the London press, Lloyd's and Reynolds's3 among others! The latter in yesterday's issue calls for the DISMEMBERMENT OF FRANCE. That swine
ne ménage pas les transitions^ The fellow has always hurled abuse at the GERMANS and fawned upon the French and now he has suddenly changed into a sort of Blind.
As to the latter chap, he hopes to achieve his election as deputy to the next Reichstag by means of a patriotic hubbub and by noisily 'suspending' his republicanism on the altar of the Fatherland.
Oswald kept on at me until I finally went to the third MEETING fixed for yesterday.0 I took care to arrive a quarter of an hour early (the meeting was due to start at 11). I explained to him that I could not sign, 1. d'abordd because I had already signed the Address of the INTERNATIONAL,' 2. because I could not sign a private Address (i.e. a non-International one) without you and they would miss the OPPORTUNITY due to the time required just for consultation with you. In the future, if an occasion presented itself, we would invite him and his friends to the International to take joint action.
I then mentioned that there was a second, personal factor. If Louis Blanc was there, his FOOTMAN, Karl Blind, would surely be present too.
He interrupted me: 'At the last MEETING here Blind mounted a furious chauvinistic diatribe. We need you against him.'
'/ cannot remain in the same room as that character, and I must tell you that if he comes I shall leave your house at once.'
I was downstairs in Oswald's study which looks out onto the street. Right enough! My EYEGLASS spied from afar the portentous ex-student, even though he had dyed his head black ALL OVER. He was accompanied by two fellow layabouts. Oswald said he would send them up to the DRAWING ROOM (the conference room) for the moment.
He then proposed to me that he would go up and say I was there and that I could not meet Blind. IN OTHER WORDS, he was g o i n g tO TURN HIM OUT. I said that would not do. He had invited Blind, there would be pointless scandal and so on.
I took my hat and parted from Oswald on the most cordial terms. Even if he didn't invent gun-powder, he is still a perfectly decent lad.
At my prompting Serraillier wrote a blunt letter to Dupont about Mothet, so blunt that Dupont was insulted and stopped his correspondence with Serraillier for a fortnight.
I would be glad if you could send me the money for the SEASIDE.(1) I would like to go to Brighton before the week is out. In the circumstances I cannot go any further away from London.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
So you will now send your letters direct to: Frederick Greenwood, Esq., EDITOR OF The Pall Mall Gazette, 2 Northumberland Street, Strand, London.
10. Marx to Johann Philipp Becker. 2 August[16]
Dear Becker,
My long silence is to be explained exclusively by lack of time. I hope we know each other sufficiently well for us both to have the conviction that our friendship is steadfast.
I sent the Manifesto of the General Council on the war* to the Egalité in the first instance, because I knew that it came too late for the Vorbote. I expect to receive copies today which I can send on to you.
In the translation of the programme for the congress (as it appears in the Vorbote), Jung made a number of mistakes:
1: this must read: 'On the need to abolish the public debt. Discussion of the right to compensation.'
2: 'On the relationship between the political action and the social movement of the working class.'
4: 'Conversion of banks of issue into national banks.' 5: 'Conditions of cooperative production on a national scale.' But all this you will find in the Volksstaat[38]
Furthermore, as far as the congress is concerned, it is perfectly obvious that it cannot be held in Mainz under present circumstances. The Belgians have proposed Amsterdam. We are convinced that the congress must be postponed until conditions are more favourable.
In the first place, our support in Amsterdam rests on very feeble foundations and it is important to hold the congress in countries where the International has already sprung strong roots.
Secondly, the Germans cannot send anyone — or no more than one person at best — thanks to the present lack of money occasioned by the war. The French cannot leave their country without passports, that is to say, without permission from the authorities. Our French sections have been dispersed, the most tried and tested members have either fled or been captured. In these circumstances we might easily see a repeat of the farce enacted in Switzerland.[39] Certain intriguers might possibly stage-manage a majorité facticeb in Amsterdam. They always manage to find the money necessary for such manoeuvres. Where from? C'est leur secret?
On the other hand, the General Council is prevented by § 3 of the Rules from postponing the date of the congress. Nevertheless, in view of the present extraordinary circumstances, it would take the responsibility for such a step upon itself, if it could be sure of the necessary support from the sections.[40] It would be desirable, therefore, if a reasoned motion to this effect could be proposed officially by the German-Swiss group and the French-Swiss in Geneva.
Bakunin, as you know, has in that blatherer Hins a fanatical instrument at his disposal in the Belgian General Council. As the Belgian secretariat was momentarily out of action, I added a denunciation and characterisation of Bakunin in my own name to the circulara which the General Council had issued on the Egalité, etc., at the beginning of January. Hins then wrote a highly impertinent letter to the General Council against me personally (he spoke of my 'manière indigne d'attaquer Bakunin'b), so I replied to him in the manner he deserved.[17] It is doubtless thanks to his influence that, yesterday, we received an official communication full of accusations from the Belgian General Council, saying i.a.: 'The Belgian General Council has resolved to instruct its delegation to the next congress to call us to account for our resolution concerning the Conseil Federal Romand'c They say we had absolutely no right to interfere in these local Swiss affairs! Curiously enough, the Brussels people themselves, like the Paris 'Fédération', had directly requested us to interfere! Memories are short!
At all events, we shall now have to justify our decision in greater detail in our own circular. I would be greatly obliged to you, therefore, if you could give us a precise account of the intrigues of the ALLIANCE,[10] the congress at La Chaux-de-Fonds[9] and the Swiss squabble in general.
I have received the letter from our Russian friends in Geneva.[23]
Please convey my thanks to them.
In actual fact, the best thing would be for them to write a pamphlet on Bakunin, but it must be done soon. In that case they need not send me any further documents on Bakunin's machinations.
They ask me what Bakunin did in 1848. During his stay in Paris in 1843-48 he acted the determined socialist. After the revolution he went to Breslau,d teamed up with the bourgeois democrats there and agitated among them for the election of Arnold Ruge (to the Frankfurt Parliament), at that time a decided enemy of socialists and communists. Later — in 1848 — he organised the Pan-Slavic Congress in Prague.[41] He was charged by the Pan-Slavists themselves with having played a double game there. But I do not believe this. If he did make mistakes there (from the viewpoint of his Pan-Slavist friends), they were in my opinion 'involuntary ones'. In early 1849 Bakunin issued an Address (pamphlet)— sentimental Pan-Slavism! a The only praiseworthy thing that can be reported about his activity during the revolution is his participation in the Dresden insurrection in May 1849.[42]
Very important in any analysis of him are his utterances immediately after his return from Siberia.b Ample material on this in the Kolokol and in Borkheim's 'Russian Letters' in the Zukunft,[43]
which I suppose you have. Tell our Russian friends that the person exposed by themc has not made his appearance here, that I have passed on their message to Borkheim, and that I shall be very pleased to have one of them come over here. Lastly, I should be greatly obliged to them if they would send me the fourth volume of Chernyshevsky just published. I shall send them the money for it through the post.
Your article on the war in the last Vorboted was very good, applauded by my whole FAMILY, who send you their most cordial greetings.
Adio.
Your
Karl Marx
The enclosed copy has been corrected in a number of places where there were printers' errors. So it is better to translate from this than from the copy sent to the Egalité.
11. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 2 August
Dear Sir,
I read in the Rappel of 1 August in a correspondence from Francfort-sur-Main of 27 juillet, the following, inter alia:
The town is full of people who have been paid to sustain warlike and anti-French feeling...' (sic!). 'A letter addressed to the Frankfurter Zeitung from London contains, among other things, a highly interesting confession. Frenchmen living in London decided to issue a proclamation against this Napoleonic war and invited the principal German republicans likewise resident in London, to join them. The Germans are reported to have refused to take part in the protest on the grounds that the war was defensive on the German side.'
This misleading report which thoroughly distorts the facts concerning the 'convocation'b issued by you, stems from Blind, the correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung.c
I believe that a correction in the Rappel (Bureau de Rédaction, 18, Rue de Valois, Paris) will enable you best to achieve the effect you originally desired.
Yours,
K. Marx
12. Engels to Marx. 3 August
12
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 3 August 1870
Dear Moor,
Enclosed are W/2 86721, Manchester, 20 June 1869—£20; W/2 77454, Manchester, 23 January 1869—£20, for Brighton, and S/11 13062, Liverpool, 17 May 1869—£5 Moore's subscription to the International. You will receive mine early in September, I am RATHER SHORT OF CASH and must wait for dividends. Since I have to make some payments, I shall have to sell SHARES. What do you think: should I wait a while or do it right away? I can still sell without loss.
I am very pleased to see that the French have advanced and occupied Saarbrücken (garrisoned by 1 battalion, 4 squadrons and perhaps some artillery). Firstly, for moral reasons. Secondly, because it means that the Germans will take up a defensive position in the first battle and a defensive position is enormously strengthened by the breech-loader. Since, on my reckoning, the Germans must have moved up into strategic positions yesterday evening, I assume that the battle, for which the introductory skirmishes are doubtless taking place today, will be fought tomorrow along the line Ottweiler-Neunkirchen-Homburg. The army of Frederick Charles and the Crown Princea will keep the front busy while Steinmetz will fall on the (left) French flank. Or vice versa.
That Greenwood did not publish the articleb" until yesterday evening, when a mass of confirmation was already available, was very stupid.c He also made a number of absurd lexical changes which reveal his ignorance of military terminology. However, it has already had an effect. Today, The Times published a LEADER which was copied straight out of my Articles II & III. So I am writing to Greenwood about it.[45]
You would have received the money yesterday but your letter only came with the second post and I did not receive it until around 4 o'clock.
13. Marx to Engels. 3 August
The joke about Blind is very pretty. Is Oswald one of the Baden Oswalds of 1849? There were 3 of them.
There is still a certain risk that the French will attack before the Germans have fully drawn up their troops. If the noble Louisa
had attacked on Friday,b he could have got as far as the Rhine without much trouble. But by Tuesday the Germans must be more or less ready. His best chance of taking the offensive was frustrated through his own fault — i.e. by the bas empire,[46] by the JOBBERY in the army administration which delayed him for 5 days and has probably forced him to march in before he was ready.
If the Germans lose this first battle, against all expectation, they could still be significantly stronger in 4 weeks than they are now. They are protected from absolute defeat by the Rhine; the French, however, have no natural obstacle to protect them.
Be so good as to let me know as soon as you receive the money; even registered letters sometimes go astray. Best greetings to you all.
Your
F. E.
13
MARX TO ENGELS[1]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 3 August 1870
DEAR FRED,
The unfortunate Oswald has just left a moment ago — 7 p.m., and although it is too late to catch the post, I shall write it all down since I do not know whether I might not be prevented by some diversion tomorrow.
The fellow with Blind was Prof. Goldstücker, an old-time National Liberal. The scene became very stormy.0 Student Blind even lied, asserting that Dr Jacoby was on his side (this was for the benefit of the Frenchmen present). On departing the fellows
a Napoleon III - b 5 August - c See this volume, pp. 23-24.
let it be understood, not LITERALLY but by insinuation, that Oswald had been 'bought' by Bonaparte.
This threw POOR Oswald into convulsions. So he came to me. / should sign TO BACK HIM. OTHERWISE, HIS POSITION IN LONDON WOULD BE DANGEROUSLY DAMAGED. He brought a printed copy of the Address with him (just the page proofs).a I repeated to him d'abord" everything I had said previously. I then read the stuff through — feeble, verbose and — out of courtoisie to the Frenchmen negotiating with him — not a hint at the DEFENSIVE CHARACTER of the WAR on the part of the GERMANS (to say nothing of PRUSSIA). I then proposed that he should drop the whole thing as its effect could not be 'great', since, as I had told him before, in my answer to his first letter,b the working class alone could offer active resistance to the national swindle.
He answered: d'abord, a certain number of Frenchmen had already signed and Louis Blanc had declared that he would lend his name (a formula to indicate that he had had no part in composing the Address).
Second, if he did not publish it now, Blind would write the next day in the German papers that he had prevented the publication of this treasonable Address. It would be better to print it.
The last point is right. I must say that I felt sorry for the lad. So I gave him the following ultimatum:
I too would lend my name (and, like Louis Blanc, not actually subscribe) on these two conditions:
1. that a note would be printed under my name saying *'I agree with the above Address so far as its general sentiments coincide with the manifesto issued by the General Council of the "International Working Men's Association".'*c
2. that a sentence was added hinting at the DEFENSIVE CHARACTER of the WAR on the GERMAN side, if only in the most unobtrusive and tactful manner.
He accepted these conditions. The next day at 5 p.m. there would be another MEETING in his house, which I would attend.
He then said: Would Engels not sign too with the same reservations as myself?
I said it was a London Address. I was lending my name on certain conditions only out of courtesy to him and wholly against my critical judgment. I saw absolutely no reason why you too should compromise yourself because Oswald had made the mistake of involving ex-student Blind in the affair at all. And there the matter was left.
Incidentally, I had already written to Oswald since Sunday/ drawing his attention to another manoeuvre of Blind's.*51 had read in the Rappel a correspondent's report from Frankfurt (quite rational for a change) in which the author was very anti-chauvinistic for a Frenchman. Nevertheless, he remarks against the Germans that
the Frankfurter Zeitung11 had printed a correspondent's report from London according to which the 'French republicans in London had invited all known German republicans to join in a common protest contre cette guerre napoléonienned.The German republicans had refused to do so because on the Prussian side the war was a defensive one.'
This was the work of the ex-student who constantly writes of, to, for and about Karl Blind and his deeds of heroism.
The Pall Mall administration sent me a cheque for 2 V2 guineas yesterday for the first ARTICLE ON WAR e (DURING JULY), with the comment that all correspondents are always paid at the end of the month. The younger branche of the Marx * family consisting of the ferocious girl£
and the illustrious Williams g have declared 'they should seize upon these first spoils of war as due to them for brokerage'.* If you wish to protest, you should act quickly in view of the energetic nature of these 'neutrals'. I enclose a cutting from yesterday's Pall Mall in which they protest against The Times' plagiarism.*1 If the war lasts A CERTAIN TIME, you will soon be acknowledged as the foremost military authority in London.
Despite all the DRAWBACKS the Pall Mall has two advantages:
1. Of the respectable newspapers it is the only one which cultivates a certain opposition to Russia. This may become important as the war progresses.
2. As the GENTLEMEN'S PAPER par excellence it sets the fashion in all the clubs, and particularly the military ones.
3. It is the only non-venal paper in London.
Apropos! Buy a copy of the latest London Illustrated News' for the portrait of that scoundrel Brunnow. His face is the very incarnation of Russian diplomacy.
BY THE BY. Disraeli came out with that ridiculous guarantee of Prussian Saxony for Prussia in the Vienna Treaties, using it as the basis for an Anglo-Russian alliance. (He conveniently forgot that the independence of Poland was a condition for that guarantee on England's part.[47]) This was just a FEELER THROWN OUT. But the Anglo-Russian alliance is actually planned by Gladstone too. The ENGLISH MEMBERS of the INTERNATIONAL really must take energetic action on this. I shall send a letter to the COUNCIL about it FOR NEXT TUESDAY.a
The Belgians have proposed the congress be held in Amsterdam on 5 September. This is the plan of Mr Bakunin. The congress would consist chiefly of his TOOLS. I have proposed instead: *Appeal to all the sections whether they think not that, under present circumstances, where the French and German delegates would be excluded from the congress, power should be given to the General Council
1. to postpone the congress; 2. to enable the Council to convoke congress at the moment it shall consider opportune.* This was passed.[4]
The matter was all the more pressing as we see from the open attack on us in the LAST Solidarité (using our decision on the Swiss matter as a pretext)[48] that Bakunin had taken all his precautionary measures for the Amsterdam Congress. He would have defeated us at the last congress in Basle, had it not been for the German element in Switzerland.[49]
Lopatin has moved to London from Brighton, where he was almost dying of boredom. He is the only 'reliable' Russian I have got to know up to now, and I shall soon succeed in driving his national prejudices out of him. I also learned from him that Bakunin had been spreading the rumour that I was an agent of Bismarck—mirabile dictu[3]l And, c'est vraiment drôle,b the same evening (last Tuesday, yesterday), Serraillier told me that Châtelain, MEMBER OF THE FRENCH BRANCH,[50] and a particular friend of Pyat, had even informed the FRENCH BRANCH IN FULL SITTING how much Bismarck had paid me — namely 250,000 francs. If, on the one hand, one is in the French habit of thinking in francs and if, on the other hand, one bears Prussian niggardliness in mind, then this is at least a very decent estimatel
Salut
Your
K. M.
14. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 3 August
Dear Mr Oswald,
I enclose herewith my ultimatum appropriately 'inscribed' and hope that it satisfies you.a I am unable to go any further.
Yours,
K. M.
* I agree with the above Address so far as its general sentiments coincide with the manifesto on the warb issued by the General Council of the 'International Working Men's Association'.*c
15. Marx to Engels. 4 August
DEAR FRED,
THANKS FOR the £40. Ditto the £5 received from KING COAL*d for the INTERNA TIONAL.
As to the sale of SHARES, my view is as follows: They will go up again, but will then fall in the very near future, because the London STOCK EXCHANGE, inert for so long, is taking the opportunity for bankruptcies and this will have the same effect on the continental EXCHANGES SO that a mass of papers will have to be thrown on to the market.
16. Engels to Marx. 5 August
As to Oswald's 'êtres',* I shall examine him on the subject today. Salut
Your
K. M.
P.S. Among the first victims of the war are the Lafargues and Schnappy.a Their cottage, in the [fortification] rayon,[29] will be torn down at the first unfavourable turn of events.
16
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 5 August 1870
Dear Moor,
In great haste. The BROKERAGE was honestly earned.b
But what do you think of our soldiers? They have taken entrenched positions with bayonets against mitrailleuses[26] and breech-loaders! MoAOAeuT>!c I'll bet that tomorrow Bonaparte will invent a victory so as to blur over the thing.
If you think it important, and if there is still time, you can add my name to the Oswald Address with the same reservations.d
Greenwood wrote very politely today, saying I should send him articles as often as I like. He's asked for it!
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
Crucial battle tomorrow or Sunday,e this time probably right on the Lorraine frontier.[32]
17. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 5 August[51]
Dear Oswald,
Would you kindly send your Address15 to my friend L. S. Borkheim who would like to see it. His private address is: 10 Brunswick Gardens, Kensington, W.
My best regards to the ladies.
Yours,
Karl Marx
18. Marx to Hermann Jung. 6 August
Dear Jung!
Enclosed a 'very readable' copy of the two resolutions of the General Council relating to the 'Alliance internationale de la démocratie socialiste'.'
You should write to Perret asking him to print these resolutions. That is the best way of replying to the Solidarité^ 4%
They must not say that they publish it by order of the General Council, but they have the right to do so, because in the original resolutions of the Council the publication was expressly decided upon.[52]
Yours truly,
Karl Marx
19. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 7 August
Dear Oswald,
Iterum Crispinus.[3]
Frederick Engels gives you permission to add his name to the Address,a but notabene on the express condition that you print the same reservation word-for-word as under my name.b
Yours,
K. M.
H. J. Rothschild, commerçantc (a German, i.e. a Prussian), gives the same permission on the same condition.
Apropos. I take it that you did allow the passage to stand which hints at the defensive character of the war on the German side, albeit in an extremely diplomatic way?
Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 33, Moscow, 1964
20. Marx to Engels. 8 August
20
MARX TO ENGELS[1]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 8 August 1870
DEAR FRED,
I shall not get away until tomorrow (I've been held back by BUSINESS for the INTERNATIONAL). I shall not be going to Brighton after all, but to Ramsgate,[53] since the former place turned out on inquiry to be too hot, and besides it is made unsafe by the presence of Arnold Winkelried Ruge.a
L'Empire est fait,b i.e. the German Empire. BY HOOK AND by CROOK, neither in the way intended nor in the manner imagined, it appears that all the double-dealing since the SECOND EMPIRE began has finally combined to carry out the 'national' aims of 1848— Hungary, Italy and Germany! It seems to me that this sort of movement will only be complete when a brawl breaks out between the Prussians and the Russians. This is by no means improbable. The press of the Muscovite party (I have seen a good deal of it chez
Borkheim) has attacked the Russian government just as savagely for its friendly attitude towards Prussia as the French papers sympathetic to Thiers attacked Boustrapa[54] in 1866 for his flirtation with Prussia. No one but the Emperor,c the German-Russian party and the official St Petersburg Journald* were sounding the bugle against France. But they did not at all expect Prussian-German successes on such a decisive scale. Like Bonaparte in 1866, they imagined that the BELLIGERENT POWERS would exhaust each other in protracted struggles, so that Holy Russia might then step in as supreme ARBITER.
But now! Unless Alexander wants to be poisoned, SOMETHING MUST
BE DONE to appease the national party. The prestige of Russia will obviously be 'harmed' even more by a German-Prussian Empire than was the prestige of the 'SECOND EMPIRE' by the establishment of the North German Confederation.[55]
So Russia will do just what Bonaparte did between 1866 and 1870, namely, play tricks on Prussia in order to gain concessions from Turkey, and despite the Russian religion of the Hohenzollerns, all this trickery will end in war between the tricksters. However gullible the German simpleton may be, his newly reinforced national sentiment (especially at the present time, when he is no longer to be persuaded that he must put up with all sorts of things in order to first establish German unity) will hardly allow him to be pressed into the service of Russia, for which there is no good reason, nor even a PRETEXT anymore. Qui vivra, verra.a If our handsome Williamb survives yet awhile, we may well live to see his proclamations to the Poles. As OLD Carlyle has said: when God wishes to accomplish something particularly great, his choice always falls on the most stupid people to carry it out.
What gives me cause for anxiety at the present moment is the state of affairs in France itself. The next great battle can hardly but go against the French. And what then? If the defeated army makes for Paris under Boustrapa's leadership it will produce the most humiliating peace possible for France, perhaps ending in the restauration of the Orléans. If a revolution breaks out in Paris, it is questionable whether they will have the means and the leaders capable of offering serious resistance to the Prussians. One cannot remain blind to the fact that the 20-year-long Bonapartist farce has brought tremendous demoralisation in its wake. One would hardly be justified to rely on revolutionary heroism. What is your opinion?
I understand nothing of military matters, but it is still my impression that rarely has a campaign been conducted in a more mindless, planless and mediocre manner than this campaign of Badinguet's.c And then, too, the beautiful opening scene with the whole Porte St Martind melodrama of the LOWER EMPIRE[46]: the father and son at the flash-vent of the cannon, and the infamous deeds such as the bombarding of Saarbrücken with which this 'sublime' scene is amalgamated! It's the man to a T!
MacMahon pressed for swift action in the original war council in Metz, but Leboeuf was of the opposite point of view.
Apropos! We have heard from Vienna (in a letter from a cousin of Eccarius, a 72-year-old man) that Bismarck was there on a secret visit!
Quite in accordance with the spirit of the LOWER EMPIRE, we can see how in this war — in its commissariat and its diplomacy— everyone acts in obedience to the maxim: steal from one another and lie to one another, so that everyone in France, from the minister to the CLERK, from the marshall to the common soldier, from the Emperor to the man who cleans his boots — everyone stands amazed as soon as THE TRUE STATE OF THINGS is revealed under cannon fire.
Mr John Stuart Mill was full of praise for our Address.a It has had a great EFFECT in London generally. Among others, the philistine Cobden PEACE SOCIETY has made a written offer to distribute it.[56]
Ad vocemb Oswald's Address. I have taken advantage of your permission since I was in fact reluctant to act without 'you'.c The delay has, of course, only made the Address even more absurd, but this is of no concern to us as we have only endorsed ITS GENERAL SENTIMENTS, etc., so far as, etc. It cannot be withdrawn now, despite its ridiculousness, since Louis Blanc, etc., would imagine we had done so because of the Prussian victories.
Apropos! Old Ruge had written to Oswald a week ago saying he could not sign. Why not? Because he was 'convinced that the Prussians would proclaim a French republic in Paris'l Can't you just picture to yourself the old woolly muddlehead in all his glory?
Enclosed are a number of pieces by the Prophet Urquhart. Salut.
Your
K. M.
P.S. In an article in The Fortnightly Review (August issue) on 'OUR UNCULTIVATED LANDS',d I found the following on the soil in Ireland:
* 'That her soil is fertile is proved upon the testimony etc. etc. and M. de Laveleye : the latter gentleman says etc. etc' (p. 204).*
Since the English regard Laveleye as a great authority on agronomy because of his books on Belgian and Italian agriculture, the passage may be of use to you.[57]
21. Engels to Marx. 10 August
21
ENGELS TO MARX
IN RAMSGATE
Manchester, 10 August 1870
Dear Moor,
Today is 10 August. Can the Parisians have forgotten it completely? To judge from this evening's Pall Mall Gazette, it would seem not.[5] The bas empire[46] looks like dissolving in a fart. Badingueta is abdicating from the army and has to hand it over to Bazaine (!!) who is now the best man among those left undefeated. This means in reality that he is abdicating altogether. It seems that people are to have the revolution made very easy for them; everything is falling to pieces entirely of its own accord, as was to be expected. The next few days will surely decide the matter.
I think that without the army the Orleanists are not strong enough to risk a restoration immediately. Since they are now the only possible dynasty left, it is conceivable that they might themselves prefer a republican interregnum again. In that event would the ex-Marseillaise[59] come to power?
I believe that faced with a republic the Prussians would agree to a peace on terms that would be honourable on the whole. It cannot be in their interest to stir up 1793 and 1794 all over again. The whole tenor of the King'sb speech suggested that they were reckoning with a revolution and were unwilling to let things go to extremes. It is true that, against this, there has been since then the great national mania in Germany and the universal cry for Alsace-Lorraine. Nor can William be relied upon. But for the moment I still believe that they will settle for less. France will doubtless have to cede some territory. And for the élan of 1793 to be reborn, and effectively reborn — that calls for the enemies of 1793 and, as you rightly say, it also calls for somewhat different Frenchmen than those who have just come from the bas empire.
Incidentally, I would surmise that the Prussians have already held discussions with the Orléans.
That Bismarck was in Vienna sounds like a local stock-market rumour to me. There is a lot of that about in Vienna.
What you say about the Russians is my opinion exactly.a And it won't be long before matters come to a head. I am convinced that in that event Bismarck will arrange things with the French in advance.
On Badinguet's strategy there were articles yesterday (LEADER) and this evening in The Pall Mall Gazette* Since then still more follies discovered. The 7th Corps of Félix Douay only left Belfort on 1 August and began a leisurely march towards Altkirch. But now that the line Strasbourg-Nancy is, or is about to be, taken by the Germans near Zabern,b the corps will have to be sent to Metz or Chalons via Vesoul and Chaumont. Such a mess is unheard of. It is excellent that it should be the Germans to expose the whole swindle at a stroke!
The letters published in the Temps since Sunday by Captain Jeannerodc give the best idea of the conception of thé enemy prevailing in the French army. The good man was taken prisoner in Saarbrücken and saw the 8th Corps (our Rhinelanders). The fellow's amazement is enough to make you die laughing. The very first glimpse of the Prussian camp impressed him enormously. ' Une belle et bonne armée, une nation fortement organisée pour la guerre'd—that is what he perceives in everything down to the Prussian N.C.O. whose 'valeur morale is 'malheureusement digne d'être enviée par nouJ.e And he is one of the most intelligent of them and can himself speak good German! He admits, moreover, that the Prussians shoot far better than the French.
The Germans now have IV4 million men under arms, so that even 100,000-200,000 Italians (=half that number of Frenchmen) make little difference. Austria risks a revolution in Vienna if she makes a move. Russia will doubtless feel SAFE until peace is concluded, or a revolutionary government has been established in Paris which cannot be relied on to enter into any double-dealing. Everyone will take good care not to irritate the enraged German simpleton still further. However, you can see how right I was in my belief that the Prussian military organisation contained tremendous power, a power completely invincible in a national war like this.
Official accounts now refer to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd German army.
22. Marx to Engels. 12 August
I just want to go down to the Schiller Institute[60] to see the latest telegrams. Best greetings to you all.
Your
F. E.
Have still not heard anything about the house. In the circumstances it might perhaps be better not to commit myself for 3'/2 years. I shall wait another few days before writing to the fellow.(1)
22
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
Ramsgate, 12 August 1870 36 Hardres Street
Dear FRED,
Enclosed a mass of stuff. Please read it and send it back with your reasoned opinion.[61]
Before I arrived here I already had pains in my left buttock and continuing into the loin. I did not know what it was. However, it has now acquired a definite character. It is rheumatism but of a diabolic kind, so that I can hardly sleep at night. An Englishman here who suffers from the same thing takes hot sea baths. Do you think that is a good idea?
COMPLIMENTS from the WHOLE FAMILY TO MRS LIZZY and FRED. Likewise thanks from my wife for your lines.[45]
Your
Moor
23. Marx to Hermann Jung. 12 August[6 2]
IN LONDON
Ramsgate, 12 August 1870 36 Hardres Street
Dear Jung,
Enclosed for submission to the General Council:
1. Resolution of the German Central Committee in Geneva. (The Romance Central Committee will be sending you a document with the same content.)
2. Also a copy of the resolution I have received from Brunswick. I a m not sending the original, because all sorts of nonsense are attached to it that I have to answer.
I am very unwell, but perhaps the sea air will help. Salut.
Yours,
K. Marx
24. Marx to Engels. 15 August
DEAR FRED,
You will see from The Daily News—and it is reprinted in today's Pall Mall[3]—that an EMINENT WRITER IS ABOUT TO ISSUE AN ENGLISH PAMPHLET in favour of the ANNEXATION of Alsace by Germany.
a The Pall Mall Gazette, No. 1717, 15 August 1870.
25. Engels to Marx. 15 August
The EMINENT WRITER who has caused this notice about himself to appear in The Daily News is of course none other than ex-student Karl Blind. This miserable wretch could really stir up a lot of trouble in the English press at this moment with his intrigues.
Since you have some influence in the Pall Mall now, you must tear the rubbish to pieces as soon as it appears, and really flay the beast alive.
Between ourselves, the Prussians could bring off a great diplomatic coup if — without demanding an inch of French soil for themselves — they were to insist on the return of Savoy and Nice to Italy and of the territory neutralised by the 1815 treaties to Switzerland.[63] No one could raise any objections to that. However, it is none of our business to offer advice on these territorial exchanges.
The family is amusing itself here royally. Tussy and Jennychen never come out of the sea and are building up a good stock of health. For my part, I am lying more or less fallow thanks to the rheumatism and the sleepless nights.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
25
ENGELS TO MARX[64]
IN RAMSGATE
Manchester, 15 August 1870
Dear Moor,
When one has had severe stomach trouble for three days like me, with slight fever from time to time, it's no great pleasure at all, even when starting to feel better, to expatiate on Wilhelm's" politique. But since you must get this rubbish back, here goes.[61] How far Bracke, who is certainly a very weak fellow, has allowed his national enthusiasm to run away with him I cannot tell, and as I receive at most one issue of the Volksstaat every fortnight, I am also unable to judge the position of the Committeea in this regard except from Bonhorst's letter to Wilhelm, which on the whole is COOL, but betrays theoretical uncertainty. In contrast with this, Liebknecht's narrow-minded and self-confident dogmatism undoubtedly shows up, very favourably as usual.
The case seems to me to be as follows: Germany has been driven by Badinguetb into a war for her national existence. If Badinguet defeats her, Bonapartism will be strengthened for years and Germany broken for years, perhaps for generations. In that event there can be no question any more of an independent German working-class movement either; the struggle to restore Germany's national existence will absorb everything, and at best the German workers will be dragged in the wake of the French. If Germany wins, French Bonapartism will at any rate be smashed, the endless row about the establishment of German unity will at last be over, the German workers will be able to organise on a national scale quite different from that prevailing hitherto, and the French workers, whatever sort of government may succeed this one, are certain to have a freer field than under Bonapartism. The whole mass of the German people of every class have realised that this is first and foremost a question of national existence and have therefore at once flung themselves into the fray. That in these circumstances a German political party should preach total abstention à la Wilhelm and place all sorts of secondary considerations before the main one, seems to me impossible.
To this must be added that Badinguet would never have been able to wage this war without the chauvinism of the mass of the French population: the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, the peasants and the imperialistic, Haussmannist building-trade proletariat stemming from the peasants, which Bonaparte created in the big towns.[65] Until this chauvinism is knocked on the head, and knocked good and proper, peace between Germany and France is impossible. One might have expected a proletarian revolution to take this work over, but since the war is already on there is no choice for the Germans but to attend to the job themselves and quickly.
Now come the secondary considerations. For the fact that Lehmann,a Bismarck & Co, are in command in this war and that it must minister to their temporary gloire if they conduct it successfully, we have to thank the miserable state of the German bourgeoisie. It is certainly very unpleasant, but cannot be altered. But to magnify anti-Bismarckism into the sole guiding principle on that account would be absurd. In the first place, now, as in 1866,[66]
Bismarck is doing a bit of our work, in his own way and without meaning to, but all the same he is doing it. He is clearing the deck for us better than before. Moreover it is no longer the year 1815. The South Germans are now bound to enter the Reichstag and this will develop a counterweight to Prussianism. Then there are the national duties which devolve on him and which, as you wrote, forbid the Russian alliance from the outset. In general it is senseless to try à la Liebknecht to set back the clock of history on all that has happened since 1866, just because it is not to his liking. But we know our model South Germans. There is nothing to be done with these fools.
I think our people can:
1) join the national movement — you can see from Kugelmann's letter how strong it is[67]—insofar and for so long as it is limited to the defence of Germany (which does not exclude an offensive, in certain circumstances, until peace is attained);
2) at the same time emphasise the difference between German national and dynastic-Prussian interests;
3) oppose any ANNEXATION of Alsace and Lorraine — Bismarck is now intimating an intention of annexing them to Bavaria and Baden;
4) as soon as a non-chauvinistic republican government is at the helm in Paris, work for an honourable peace with it;
5) constantly stress the unity of interests between the German and French workers, who did not approve of the war and are also not making war on each other;
6) Russia, as in the Address of the International.b
Amusing is Wilhelm's assertion that because Bismarck is a former accomplice of Badinguet's the correct position would be to remain neutral. If that were the general opinion in Germany, we should soon have the Confederation of the Rhine[68] again and the noble Wilhelm should see what sort of role he would play in that, and what would become of the workers' movement. A people that gets nothing but kicks and blows is indeed the right one to make a social revolution, above all in the innumerable small states so beloved of Wilhelm!
How nice of the poor little fellow to seek to call me to account for something that was 'supposed' to have been in the Elberfelder Zeitungl[69] Poor animal! The débâcle in France seems to be frightful. Everything squandered, sold, swindled away. The chassepots[70] are badly made and misfire in action; there are none left of them and the old flintlocks have got to be hunted out again. Nevertheless a revolutionary government, if it comes soon, need not despair. But it must abandon Paris to its fate and carry on the war from the South. There would then still be a possibility of its holding out until arms have been bought and new armies organised which would gradually force the enemy back to the frontier. This would really be the true end of the war, both countries reciprocally furnishing proof that they are unconquerable. But if this does not happen quickly the game is up. Moltke's operations are a model — old William seems to give him a perfectly free hand — and the fourth battalions are already joining the army, while the French ones are not yet in existence.
If Badinguet is not out of Metz yet it may go badly with him. Sea-bathing is no good for rheumatism. But Gumpert, who is spending four weeks in Wales, maintains that sea air is particularly wholesome. I hope you will soon be relieved of your pain. It's something terrible. At any rate it's not dangerous and the restoration of your general health is much more important.
Best regards.
Your
F. E.
You can see, incidentally, how the wretched Wilhelm constantly flirts with the reactionary particularists[71]—Wulster, Obermüller, etc., and drags the Party in with him.
Wilhelm has obviously counted on Bonaparte's victory, simply in the hope that it would finish off his dear Bismarck. You recollect how he always threatened him with the French. And it goes without saying, of course, that you too are on Wilhelm's side]"
26. Engels to Jenny Marx. 15 August
26
ENGELS TO JENNY MARX[72]
IN RAMSGATE
Manchester, 15 August 1870
Dear Mrs Marx,
Today I was at the bank I had given to Smith as a reference and I heard there by chance that he had finally condescended to ask for information. What he found out (namely, that the bank would guarantee ten times the sum concerned, if it were required) will doubtless satisfy him.[24] I suppose I shall now hear from him soon. I am very glad that I do not have to write first to that stupid aristocrat of a LANDLORD whose SEAT near Bolton seems to be a diminutive affair in the middle of the factory smoke. The fellow is obviously off shooting GROUSE on the moors nearby and will certainly be in just the mood to enter into business correspondence with TENANTS. The ass obviously wanted to make himself feel important.
In view of the present situation in France, where everything may be overturned any day — and probably will be in a week or two — it is of course risky to take a house and furnish it for 3 V2 years. However, it is a risk that must be taken. It seems to me that the Orleanists now want an interim republic like that of 1848 directed by themselves, in the hope that such a republic would suffer the obloquy of having to conclude a peace, thus ensuring that the Crown would go to their Orléans as the only possible dynasty left. However, this strategy can easily misfire.
The worst thing is: who could possibly take over leadership of a genuine revolutionary movement in Paris? Rochefort is the most popular and the only suitable man — Blanqui seems to be forgotten.
That Barbes is dead is a blessing. The 'Beard of the Party' would spoil everything again. Enfin, nous verrons.a
I have been very lucky with my articles.b Some few little prophecies which I made at a moment when they were certain, appeared in the press in time, so that they could be confirmed by the news the next morning. Such things are pure luck and impress the philistines enormously.
27. Marx to Engels. 17 August
Who wrote the article that appeared recently under the name of 'von Thunder-ten-Tronckh' in which the English philistines were so bluntly told the truth?[73] In general, it is remarkable what tremendous qualities the English are suddenly able to discover in the Germans, and how they are all at Bonaparte's throat, having lain in the dust at his feet only four weeks ago. There is no greater rabble than the honnêtes gens.*
Unfortunately, I have no time to write to Tussy today; would you please tell her that I shall be writing to Kugelmann in the next few days and shall enclose the relevant material.[74]
My wifeb and I send you all our warmest regards and hope that the stay at the seaside will do you a world of good.
Yours,
F. Engels
27
MARX TO ENGELS[64]
IN MANCHESTER
[Ramsgate,] 17 August0 1870
DEAR FRED,
My best thanks (ditto from MRS Marx for the letter to herd) for the pains you took under such circonstances aggravantes.' Your letter' tallies completely with the plan of the answer I have already worked out in my head. Nevertheless, in such an important matter — it is not a question of Wilhelmg but of instructions to the German workers as to their line of conduct—I did not want to act without first consulting with you. [5]
Wilhelm infers his agreement with me:
1) from the Address of the International," which he of course first translated into his own, Wilhelminian language;
2) from the fact that I approved his and Bebel's statement in the Reichstag.[31] That was a 'moment' when harping on principles was un acte de courage? but it by no means follows that the moment still continues, much less that the attitude of the German proletariat toward a war which has become national is com-prehended in Wilhelm's antipathy to the Prussians. It would be just as if we were to object to the relative independence which Italy received as a result of this war merely because at a suitable moment we had raised our voices against the 'Bonapartist' liberation of Italy.
The lust for Alsace and Lorraine seems to predominate in two circles: the Prussian camarilla and the South-German beer-patriots. It would be the greatest misfortune that could befall Europe and above all Germany. You will have seen that most of the Russian newspapers are already talking of the necessity of European diplomatic intervention in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe.
Kugelmann confuses a defensive war with defensive military operations.0 So if a fellow falls upon me in the street I may only parry his blows but not KNOCK him DOWN, because then I should turn into an aggressor! The WANT of dialectics peeps out of every word these people utter.
I have not slept a wink the fourth night running because of the rheumatism, and all that time fantasies about Paris, etc., run through my mind. I shall have Gumpert's sleeping potion prepared for me this evening.
W i t h the DEATH-KNELL of the SECOND EMPIRE THAT WILL END AS IT BEGAN, BY A PARODY,d I hit the neil on the head with my Bonaparte, after all! Can one imagine a finer parody of Napoleon's 1814 campaign? I believe we two are the only folks who grasped the whole mediocrity of Boustrapa[54] FROM THE BEGINNING, regarded him as a mere SHOWMAN, and never allowed ourselves to be misled by his momentary successes.
Apropos! The bourgeois PEACE SOCIETY[56] has sent the General
28. Engels to Marx. 20 August
Council of the International £20 for printing the Manifesto in the French and German languages.
Salut
Your
K. M.
The Times, Telegraph," Daily News, etc., all of which fawned so prettily on Bonaparte for 20 years!
The Brunswick suggestion that the General Council should request Borkheim to draw up a pamphlet against Russia is really hilarious!
How naive can people be! The sea air is very good for me and at any rate this attack would have been far more unpleasant in London.
I don't agree with you about the house rent for 3V2 years.a
Thanks to the French catastrophe, GENTLEMEN'S dwellings in London will now go up in price and you will be able to get rid of the house any day 'with ease'.
28
ENGELS TO MARX[76]
IN RAMSGATE
Manchester, 20 August 1870
Dear Moor,
I hope that your rheumatism has become less acute. The chloral will have done you some good; if not, then see a doctor and ask him to prescribe a sedative. Gumpert is in Wales and hence unavailable for consultation.
I have written a vigorous letter to Smith today about the house.b* I can't let myself be humbugged any longer by this GROUSE-SHOOTING ARISTOCRAT. I was supposed to be there in 4 weeks, yet it was 5 weeks yesterday since I reached agreement with Smith and there is still no answer!
I think that the ANNEXATION of the French Germans is as good as settled. If a revolutionary government had been formed in Paris as late as last week something still might have been done about it. Now, however, it comes too late and can only make a fool of itself by parodying the Convention. I am convinced that Bismarck would have settled for a peace without cession of territory with a revolutionary government if it had come on the scene in time. But the way France is behaving now he has no reason to resist the pressures from without and his vanity from within. It is a great pity, but it seems to me inevitable. If Germany were a state like France, it would be easier to find excuses. But as things stand, with the need to divide the conquered territory between the three neighbouring countries, it is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the Germans should be willing to lumber themselves with a German-speaking Venetia in the West.[77] I shall try to obtain the ponderous Blind's weighty pamphlet, but it will likely as not come too late."
What do you think of Mack-Bazaine? Mac-Mahon was bad enough, but now we shall have Mack (of Ulm)—tout court? It will be an unheard-of thing if 120,000 Frenchmen have to lay down their arms, and that will doubtless be the result.[78] Just imagine that old mule Williamc deflowering la pucelled of Metz in his old age! There has never been such a dégringolade* as the one now displayed by the 2nd Empire. I am only curious to see whether the Parisians will not finally muster the energy to do something when they learn the truth about the events of this last week.[79] Not that it would be of any use any more. The demolitions undertaken around Paris to facilitate its defence are on such a colossal scale that I cannot believe they have been carried out properly. The population of the city has almost trebled since 1840 and the difficulties of provisioning it likewise. And finally, all traffic relies so greatly on the railway now that if a few bridges are blown up on every line it will be almost impossible to bring any supplies worth mentioning into the city, even if the blockade is not complete.
29. Marx to Engels. 22 August
The losses of the last few weeks must be enormous. Throughout the entire war the Germans have used bayonets with the greatest determination. And now they have been deploying cavalry against unflinching infantry so that men must have been falling like flies. The handsome William[3] has made no mention of all this. But this much is certain: man for man and battalion for battalion, the Germans have proved their most decisive superiority over the French. First at Spicheren[32] where they had 27 battalions against (at least) 42 French battalions which were occupying an almost impregnable position. After Thursday's battle[80] it will be almost impossible to restrain the demoralisation in the French camp.
Is Kugelmann in Carlsbada? I do not know where to send the portrait. b
Best wishes from Lizzie and me to you all. I hope to hear good news from you soon about your rheumatism.
Your
F. E.
29
MARX TO ENGELS[81]
IN MANCHESTER
London, 22 August 1870
DEAR FRED,
The onslaughts of the rheumatism were so severe that the family council resolved to send me to London to consult Dr Maddison. Hence went to London on Saturdayc afternoon from where I am returning to Ramsgate today.
Consulted Maddison yesterday. Says it is a severe form of SCIATICA. Prescribed medicine and also some stuff to rub in. Sojourn by the sea is beneficial to my GENERAL STATE OF HEALTH which
30. Marx to Engels. 30 August
is somewhat impaired by my sleeplessness. He is in favour of taking a hot sea-water bath on very warm days.
In Paris they seem concerned only to keep the population at bay until the necessary measures have been taken to make the interim secure for the TRUSTEES of the Orléans.
Salut
Your
K. M.
Did you read the lousy letter from Louis Blanc?a The essence of patriotism is to remain passive so as to force the Bonapartists to shoulder the entire responsibility.
That Scottish jackass Elcho seems to imagine that he is the British Moltke.[82]
Freiligrath: 'Hurra! Germania!'[88] Nor does he fail to bring God into his laboriously farted song, and 'the Gaul' as well.
I had rather be a kitten and cry mew, Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers!b
30
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
Ramsgate, 30 August 1870 DEAR FRED,
Tomorrow morning back to London by STEAMER. In the first place, it is very expensive to pay for 5 people to stay here since the English have thronged to all the seaside resorts on account of the war.
In the second place, RELATIVELY to the price the accommodation is damned 'draughty'. The worst pains have stopped, but I am almost paralysed in a certain place, so that I must consult the doctor yet again.
More details from London.
Your
K. M.
The Spectator—8 DAYS SINCE — said that your articles[12] were the only significant ones in the English press, but regretted that the
AUTHOR Was SO CHARY OF HIS WORDS AND HIS FACTS. Apropos. Borkheim was here yesterday on a visit from Margate. He seemed put out because he wanted to write your articles, and had approached the Pall Mall before us. He took his leave with a long face.
31. Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 1 September[84]
Dear Mr Sorge,[85]
My continued silence in the face of your several letters was due to two circumstances: at first 'OVERWORK', later very serious illness. At the beginning of August the doctors sent me to the seaside.[53]
But there a severe attack of SCIATICA bent me double for weeks. I have been back in London only since yesterday, by no means fully recovered.
First of all, my best thanks for what you have sent me, especially the LABOR STATISTICS* which are of great value to me.
Now I shall briefly answer the questions in your various letters. Hume was empowered to carry on propaganda among the Yankees, but has exceeded his powers. I shall submit the matter to the General Council next Tuesday, with an EXHIBITION of his 'cards'.[86]
As for the 'secretaryship' for the UNITED STATES, the matter is as follows: I am secretary for the German BRANCHES over there, Dupont for the French, and lastly Eccarius for the Yankees and the English-speaking part of the branches. In our public DECLARATIONS, therefore, Eccarius figured as 'SECRETARY FOR THE UNITED STATES'. Otherwise we should have to employ useless circumlocutions. I, for instance, would also have to sign as 'Secretary for the Russian branche'in Geneva, and so on. Moreover, Eccarius himself plainly set forth the state of affairs in a New York PAPER — in connection with Cluseret.[87]
Next week I shall send you a new pack of CARDS OF MEMBERSHIP. The lamentable behaviour of Paris during the war — still allowing itself to be ruled by the mamelukes of Louis Bonaparte and of the Spanish adventuress Eugénie(1) after appalling defeats— shows how much the French need a tragic lesson in order to regain their manhood.
What the Prussian jackasses do not see is that the present war is leading just as inevitably to a war between Germany and Russia as the war of 1866[66] led to the war between Prussia and France. This is the best outcome that I expect from it for Germany. 'Prussianism' as such never has existed, and never can exist, except in alliance with and in subjection to Russia. And such a war No. 2 will act as the midwife of the inevitable social revolution in Russia.
I regret that some misunderstanding on the part of my friend Vogt which is incomprehensible to me has led to a wrong opinion regarding Schily.[88] Schily is not only one of my oldest and most intimate personal friends; he is one of the ablest, most courageous, and most reliable members of the Party.
I am very glad that Meyer is going to Cincinnati as a delegate.[89]
Most faithfully yours,
Karl Marx
I should like to have a look at the Kellogg money nonsense (merely a variety of Bray, Gray, Bronterre O'Brien, etc., in
32. Marx to Engels. 2 September
England and of Proudhon in France) in the original.[90] The stuff cannot be obtained here.
32
MARX TO ENGELS[81]
IN MANCHESTER
London, 2 September 1870
DEAR FRED,
Arrived here the evening before last. Today I shall go to see Dr Maddison.
Yesterday evening the enclosed note came from The Pall Mall Gazette together with a CHEQUE. Should I endorse the latter on your behalf and send it to Manchester, or cash it and send banknotes?
After the spectacular confirmation of your first article on MacMahon[91] it would be a good moment to begin your next article with a summary of your own Notes on the War}[2] As you know, the English need to have their noses rubbed in the 'POINTS', and too much reticence with regard to furnishing information WILL NOT DO with FULL-MOUTHED John Bull. The female members of the family are furious to find your articles plundered by all the London papers, but never quoted.
In my view the entire DEFENCE of Paris is nothing but a police farce, put on to keep the Parisians happy until the Prussians are standing at the gates, ready to restore order, viz., the dynasty and its mamelukes.
The wretched spectacle which Paris presents at this moment, and I mean by that throughout the entire war, shows that France had to be taught a tragic lesson if she was to be saved.
The declaration that no one can defend his 'fatherland' except in a uniform is an authentic piece of Prussianism]
The Prussians should surely have learned from their own history that it is not possible to achieve 'eternal' security from a defeated enemy through DISMEMBERMENT, etc. And even after the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, France will not be battered as badly BY FAR as Prussia was by Napoleon's horse-cure at Tilsit.[92] And how much did Napoleon I benefit from that? It just helped Prussia onto her feet again.
I do not believe that Russia has actively intervened in this war up to now. I don't believe that she is prepared for such intervention, but it is a diplomatic master coup for her to have proclaimed herself France's SAVIOUR already at this stage.[93]
In my detailed reply to the Brunswick Committee3 I have once and for all abolished the fulsome 'identity' of interests between him and myself which our Wilhelmb invents to others whenever it suits his purposes. It is a good thing that his initiative should have given me the opportunity to make an official statement for once about this malentendu0 fostered by him so intentionally and with a bad conscience.
What do you think of Freiligrath as a family poet? Even historical catastrophes like the present one do no more than provide an opportunity for him to extol his own BRATS. In the process the VOLUNTEER 'medical orderly' is transformed into a 'SURGEON' for the benefit of the English.[94]
The correspondence between the former Swabian seminarist David Strauss and the former French pupil of the Jesuits, Renan, is an entertaining episode.[95] Once a priest, always a priest. The history course of Mr Strauss seems to have its roots in Kohlrauschd or a similar school textbook.
Addio!
Your
K. M. The Prussians do seem to have told infamous lies after all about the bombardment of Saarbrücken.
In Paris farcical episodes follow thick and fast. But the nicest of all is that of the soldiers who march out of one gate and march in again by the next.
Enclosed a letter from Laura.e The fools' dawdling over their retreat to Bordeaux is unforgivable.'
33. Marx to Sigfrid Meyer. 2 September
33
MARX TO SIGFRID MEYER
IN HOBOKEN
London, 2 September 1870 1 Maitland Park Road, Haverstock Hill
Dear Meyer,
Just a few lines in great haste (if I am to catch die post). I shall write to you more fully next week. I came back yesterday from the seaside where the doctors had sent me for my health[53] but where a violent and painful attack of SCIATICA bent me double for weeks on end.
The first thing I did on my return was to reply to a pile of letters waiting for me; among my letter-creditors was Sorge, with half a dozen letters. Your letter had been mislaid and I only received it after sending off my reply to Sorge,[3] so I was unable to modify that in the light of the information contained in your letter.*a
In any case I simply had to write to Sorge because he had sent me newspapers and LABOR STATISTICS (Massachusetts)b", ditto information about Hume of use to the General Council, together with 2 SAMPLES of the International cards, etc., he had produced.[86] Lastly, I could not under any circumstances permit friend Vogt's erroneous view of Schily—one of my oldest and most intimate friends — to stand uncorrected.[88]
I was delighted to see from Sorge's last letter that you were being sent as a delegate to Cincinnati.[89]
If the German Workers' Union has nominated other correspondents this FACT should be reported to me officially for communication to the General Council.
Salut et fraternité.
Yours,
K. M.
34. Engels to Marx. 4 September
Could you give me any further information, such as the relevant acts of Congress, etc., about the economics of the railroad in the West?
34
ENGELS TO MARX[1]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 4 September 1870
What care I for wife, what care I for child— I .have higher yearnings; If hungry they are, let them go and beg— My Emperor, my Emperor a captive!a
World history is surely the greatest of poets; it has even succeeded in parodying Heine! My Emperor,b my Emperor a captive! 9I And what is more, a captive of the 'stinking Prussians', and poor William c stands by and assures everybody for the hundredth time that he is really quite innocent of the whole business and that it is purely the will of God! William really is just like the schoolboy: 'Who created the world?' 'Please, teacher, I did — but I won't ever do it again!'
And then that wretch Jules Favre comes along with the proposal that Palikao, Trochu and a few Arcadians [7] should form a government. There has never been such a band of riff-raff. But all the same, when this becomes known in Paris we must expect something or other to happen. I cannot believe that this flood of news, which is bound to become known today or tomorrow, will fail to produce its effect. Perhaps a government of the gauched
which, after a show of resistance, will conclude peace.
The war is at an end. There is no longer an army in France.
As soon as Bazaine capitulates, which will likely as not happen this week,[98] half the German army will march on Paris and the other half across the Loire to sweep the country clean of all armed units.
On the subject of my articles,[12] you will have seen that I did what was necessary in the one that appeared the day before yesterday.a But my worst enemy in the English press is MR Greenwood himself. The fool regularly cuts out all the taunts I make about his competitors' plagiarisms, and what is even better, in his Epitome he excerpts the articles copied from mine the previous night with the greatest good humour and without even allowing himself a jibe about their plagiarism. The trouble is that the fellow cannot refrain from indulging his private passion for his own military opinion, which is pure nonsense. Every philistine regards the ability to ride as a matter of honour, and understanding strategy comes into the same category. But even that is not enough to satisfy him. A few days ago he inserted a few utterly absurd lines about the siege of Strasbourg — simply in order to fill up the column. At the first opportunity I shall write an article on the same subject and say the exact opposite.[99] But what can one say? Journalism in peacetime is nothing but a continual process of reasoning about things which one has not learned about, and so I have no real right to complain.
Cash the CHEQUE yourself and keep the money.b Half belongs to you by rights and the other half is an advance on the next payment when I shall send you a further £70.
The Alsace swindle — apart from its pristine Teutonic features— is mainly of a strategic nature and aims at getting the line of the Vosges and German Lorraine as border territory. (Language frontier: if you draw a straight line from Donon or Schirmeck in the Vosges to one hour's travelling east of Longwy where the Belgian-Luxembourg and French frontiers meet, that is almost the exact place: from Donon along the Vosges to the Swiss frontier.) Northwards from Donon the Vosges are actually not so high and steep as in the south. Only the jackasses of the Staats-Anzeiger and Brass & Co. could get the notion that France will be 'throttled' by the snipping off of this narrow strip with its IV4 million or so inhabitants. The hysterical demands of the philistines for 'guaran-tees' are altogether absurd, but they tell because they suit the book of the people at Court.
I have not yet read the great medical-orderly poem.a It must be great. Moreover, these medical orderlies are the greatest loafers; when they are needed they are never on hand, but they stuff themselves, booze and bluster to such an extent that everyone in the army is fed up with them. Only a few exceptions.
In Saarbrücken the French did as much damage as they could. Of course the bombardment lasted only a few hours and not, as in Strasbourg, day and night for weeks.
Herewith returning Cacadou'sb letter with thanks. Very interesting. The defence of Paris will be an entertaining episode, if nothing out of the way happens inside. These perpetual little PANICS on the part of the French — all of which arise from fear of the moment when they will at last have to learn the truth — give one a much better idea of the Reign of Terror. We take this to mean the rule of people who inspire terror. On the contrary, it is the rule of people who themselves are terror-stricken. La terreur implies mostly useless cruelties perpetuated by frightened people in order to reassure themselves. I am convinced that the blame for the Reign of Terror in 1793 lies almost exclusively with the bourgeois frightened out of their wits and setting out to comport themselves like patriots, with the small philistines crapping their trousers, and with the mob of the underworld who knew how to coin profit from the terreur. These are the very classes active in the present minor terreur too.
Best regards to all of you from all of us, including Jollymeyerc
and Moore.
Your
F. E.
Fist published abridged in Der Briefwech-Printed according to the original sei zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. IV, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in Published in English in full for the MEGA, Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 f i r s t t l m e 4 1870
35. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 4 September
In great haste
Dear Oswald,
I only arrived back in London [5 3] on Saturday, (1) and had too much BUSINESS on hand to be able to accept your kind invitation.
If you are doing a 4th EDITION,[15] could you please put instead of 'Association Internationale Ouvrière', the official title current in France: 'Association Internationale des Travailleurs'. I was right about the EMPIRE ending in 'PARODY'.1"
Yours,
K. M.
36. Marx to Engels. 6 September[1 0 0]
I had just 'sat down' to write to you when Serraillier came to tell me that he is leaving London tomorrow for Paris, but only for a few days. His chief purpose is to arrange matters with the International there (Conseil Federal de Paris). This is all the more essential as the entire FRENCH BRANCH [50] is setting off for Paris today to commit all sorts of follies there in the name of the International 6 1870
'They' intend to bring down the Provisional Government, establish a commune de Paris, nominate Pyat as French ambassador in London, and so forth.
I received today a proclamation to the German people from the Conseil Fédéral in Paris [1 0 1] (I shall send it on to you tomorrow), together with an urgent appeal to the Conseil General to issue a new manifesto specifically for the Germans. I had already planned to propose that this evening. Please could you send me as soon as possible the relevant military notes on Alsace-Lorraine in English for use in the manifesto.[3]
I have already sent a detailed answer today to the Conseil Fédéral, and have also subjected myself to the unpleasant task of opening their eyes to the true state of affairs.[17]
Received a reply from Brunswick to the effect that they will agitate precisely in accordance with my instructions.[102]
Apropos! Longuet telegraphed me the proclamation of the Republic on Sunday. I received the telegram at 4 a.m.
Jules Favre, although a notorious scoundrel and man of June b is good pour le moment0 as Foreign Minister. H e had always opposed the old Thiers policies and come out in favour of the unity of Italy and of Germany.
I am only sorry for Rochefort for being a member of this gouvernement which also includes the infamous Gamier-Pages. But he could not well refuse to take part as a MEMBER of the comité de défense.[10]*
Best thanks for the cash. Even the gods have no knowledge of any claim I might have to half your fee.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Paul, Laura and Schnappy d arrived safely in Bordeaux on 2 September. All the better as Lafargue would never have left [Paris] UNDER the PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES.*1
Here there are veritable floods of réfugiés qui ont sauvé la caisse.[1]
As I wrote to you before, GENTLEMEN-S residences are going u p in price.g
37. Engels to Marx. 7 September
Do you not think that if the weather, which is said to be abominable in France at the moment, continues like this, as is very probable after the unusually long drought that has preceded it, the Prussians will have good 'cause' to listen to reason, especially as the Anglo-Russo-Austrian alliance is threatening?
Dupont, who used to correspond with Pigott, ought to write the swine an abusive letter in the name of the French republicans. Urge him to do so.
37
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 7 September 1870
Dear Moor,
(Continuation.)a Due to the unexpected victories chauvinism has gone horribly to the heads of the German philistines who have done nothing to bring them about, and it is high time to do something about this. If only the Volksstaat were not so contemptible! But nothing can be done about that. By the time my preface to The Peasant Warb in pamphlet form appears in print, it will have been long since overtaken by events. All the more urgent, therefore, is the new proclamation of the Internationalc (for which you must do the German as well this time).
If the telegraphed version of the Parisian International proclamation [101] is anything near accurate, it undoubtedly shows that these people are still entirely dominated by rhetoric. Having endured Badinguetd for 20 years, having been unable to prevent him from winning 6 million votes against la/2 only six months ago[104] and from stirring them up against Germany without any rhyme or reason, now that the German victories have made them a present of a republic—et laquelle!b—these people demand that the Germans should leave the sacred soil of France without delay, for otherwise there will be guerre à outrancec ! It is the same old idea of the superiority of France, of a land consecrated by 1793 which no subsequent French indecencies can profane, of the sanctity of the word: the Republic. Such behaviour really does put me in mind of the Danes in 1864 [105] who allowed the Prussians to approach to within 30 paces, fired a salvo at them and then laid down their arms in the hope that they would not be repaid in kind for the formality.
I hope that they will all reflect on the matter once more when the first intoxication is past, for if not, it will be damned difficult to have any truck with them at an International level.
The entire republic, like its pacific origin, has been a complete farce up to now. As I have expected for the past two weeks and even longer,d the Orleanists want an interim republic to conclude the shameful peace, so that the ONUS will not fall on the Orléans who are to be restored subsequently. The Orleanists have the real power: Trochu the military command and Kératry the police; the gentlemen of the gauchee have the hot-air portfolios. Since the Orléans are now the only possible dynasty, they can wait calmly for the right moment for the real avènement au pouvoir.'
Dupont has just left. He spent the evening here and was furious about this beautiful Paris proclamation. He was reassured to hear that Serraillier will go there having had prior discussions with you. His views on the case are perfectly clear and accurate: make use of the freedoms inevitably granted by the republic to organise the party in France; act when occasion presents itself, once organisation has been completed; the International to be held on a leash in France until after peace has been concluded.
The gentlemen of the Provisional Government and the bourgeois in Paris appear to know full well (to judge by the reports in The Daily News) that any ideas of continuing the war are just idle talk. The rain will hardly hold up the Germans at all; the men in the field are used to it by now and healthier for it than they would be in the heat. Of course there could be epidemics, especially with the capitulation of Metz, where they will probably have broken out already, though it is not certain. A guerrilla war which would force the Prussians to order mass shootings does not seem very likely either, but it could break out here and there under the initial impact of revolution. As soon as we know what effect the capitulation of Metz will have in Paris (and it must happen next week at the latest),a we shall be in a better position to predict the further development of the war. Up to now, the measures, i.e. phrases, of the new rulers seem to promise little but a forthcoming surrender.
Rochefort will probably not remain with that mob for long. When the Marseillaise reappears things will quickly come to a head between him and them.
Schorlemmer left today with Wehner to bring a mass of spirits, wine, woollen blankets, flannel shirts, etc. (for over £1,000 in all) from the local Aid-Committee[106] directly through Belgium to Sedan for the wounded. If he has time, he will call on you, but they still have a heap of things to attend to there; they did not start buying things and parcelling them up until yesterday morning. From there, they intend to go on to Metz, if possible, where each of them has a brother with the army.
It is typical of the lousy government in Paris that they do not venture to tell the public the true facts of the present situation. I fear that unless there is a miracle, there will have to be a phase of direct bourgeois rule under the Orleans to allow the struggle to proceed in its pure form. To sacrifice the workers now, would be strategy à la Bonaparte and MacMahon; before peace they cannot act under any circumstances, and after that they will first need time to organise.
The threat of the alliance[3] will doubtless bring pressure to bear on the Prussians. But they know that the Russian breech-loaders are good for nothing, that the English have no army and that the Austrians are very weak. In Italy Bismarck with the Popeb (since the Florentine government has officially announced it will go to Rome in September), and with the consent of Nice and Savoy, appears to have made any resistance by the ruling circles impossible; it was a brilliant coup. Incidentally, Bismarck seems only to be waiting for some pressure to declare himself satisfied with money and the town of Strasbourg and its environs. He can
38. Marx to Engels. 10 September
still use the French and may well imagine that they might see this as magnanimous.
Adjiis, best greetings,
Your
F. E.
38
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 September 1870
Dear FRED,
You and Dupont must forgive me for answering so late and then only in a few lines. I am OVERWHELMED with political BUSINESS.
You can see from the enclosed pieces of imbecility from opposite places — one from Paris, the other from Brunswick — just how pleasant our task is made for us.
You know that I sent instructions to Brunswick.(1) I assumed— mistakenly — that I was not dealing with uncouth BABIES, but with educated people who must be aware that the brutal language of a letter is not designed 'for printing', and furthermore that instructions have to contain confidential hints that are not intended to be revealed in the blare of publicity. WELL! These jackasses not only print 'word-for-word' extracts from my letter. They point their pitchforks at me, identifying me as the author. And they print sentences, such as the one about 'shifting the centre of gravity of the continental labour movement from France to Germany', etc., which were intended to spur them on, but which were not to be published now under any circumstances.[107] I suppose I must be grateful to them at least for not having published my criticism of the French workers. And to cap it all the fellows even sent their compromising mishmash IN HOT HASTE— to Parisl (To say nothing of Brussels and Geneva.)
I shall really tell them a few home truths, but the damage is done! On the other hand, there are the fools in Paris! They have sent me piles of their absurd chauvinistic manifesto[101] which the English workers here greeted with derision and indignation that I had the greatest difficulty in preventing from being expressed publicly. I am supposed to send the thing to Germany en masse, probably to prove the Germans that they first have to 'withdraw across the Rhine' before they arrive homel And furthermore, instead of writing a rational answer to my letter,a the fellows take the liberty of sending me instructions by telegraph (instructions from ex-student Longuet!) on how I must set about agitating in Germany I Quel malheur!*
I have set everything in motion here for the workers to force their government to recognise the French Republic.[108] (The series of MEETINGS begins on Monday.b) Gladstone WAS WILLING ENOUGH at first. But the Queenc was under Prussian instructions and there was also the oligarchic part of the CABINET!
I am sorry to see that that lousy, importunate, vain and over-ambitious babbler Cluseret has got his hooks into Grousset of the Marseillaise, a very able, staunch and courageous man.
The new Addressd (THANKS for your contribution to it) will be printed by Tuesday. It is long, but that was unavoidable.
Your articles on the FORTIFICATIONS of Paris and the bombardment of Strasbourg are masterly.e
Tell Dupont that I am in complete agreement with his views, and that I expressly commissioned Serraillier to write to him saying that he should not leave Manchester pro nunc}
Schorlemmer here the evening before last.
Salut
Your
K. M.
Apropos! Prof. Schäffle of Tübingen has published a massive and idiotic bookf against me (it costs 12/6d!).
39. Engels to Marx. 12 September
39
ENGELS TO MARX[109]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 12 September 1870
Dear Moor,
Our friends over there — both in France and Germany — do indeed surpass each other in political adroitness. Those jackasses in Brunswick! They were afraid you would resent it if they tampered with the guidelines you had given them, so they printed them as they stood.[107] The only awkward thing in reality is the passage about shifting the centre of gravity. To have printed that was an unprecedented piece of tactlessness. However, it is to be hoped that the Parisians have more urgent concerns now than to devote themselves to the study of this manifesto, particularly since they do not understand German. Their German in the proclamation is beautiful. And in his paper[3] Wilhelma is full of praise for this chauvinistic mishmash.b Longuet is another fine one. Just because William I has presented them with a republic, a revolution should break out without delay in Germany. So why did they not make a revolution after the one in Spain?[111]
The passage on Alsace-Lorraine from the manifestoc is printed in today's Zukunft, but as something emanating from the Brunswickers. Send me 2 or more copies of the new Address as soon as it is ready.
If anything at all could be done in Paris, the workers ought to be prevented from letting fly before peace is concluded. Bismarck will soon be in a position to make peace, either by taking Paris or because the European situation will oblige him to put an end to the war. However the peace may turn out, it must be concluded before the workers can do anything at all. If they should be victorious now — in the service of national defence — they would have to enter upon the legacy left by Bonaparte and the present lousy republic. They would be needlessly crushed by the German armies and thrown back another twenty years. They themselves can lose nothing by waiting. The possible boundary changes are in any case only provisional and will be reversed again. To fight for the bourgeoisie against the Prussians would be madness. Whatever government concludes peace will on that account alone become impossible before long, and in internal conflicts there will not be much to fear from the army returning home from prisoner-of-war camps. The situation will present more favourable chances to the workers after the peace than it ever did before. But won't they let themselves be carried away under the pressure of the attack from without, and proclaim the Social Republic on the eve of the storming of Paris? It would be appalling if, as their last act of war, the German armies had to fight a battle with the Parisian workers at the barricades. It would set us back 50 years and would throw everything into such disarray that everybody and everything would get into a false position — to say nothing of the national hatred and the rule of rhetoric which would then take hold of the French workers!
It is a damned nuisance that there are so few people in Paris who have the courage to see things as they really are in the present situation. Is there anyone in Paris who dares to admit to himself that the active resistance of France has been broken as far as this war is concerned, and that consequently there is no prospect of successfully repulsing the invasion by means of revolution! Precisely because people do not wish to hear the actual truth, I am afraid that it may come to that. For the apathy of the workers before the fall of the Empire will no doubt have been changed now.
Could you let me know the title of the book by Schaf fiea? He really is a worthy opponent for you! The fellow was in the Customs Parliament and is a very undistinguished vulgar economist, rather along the lines of Faucher, but a Swabian. You will just love his book.
Since it looks as if something has to be annexed in any case, it is high time for us to think of a way for French and German workers to agree to regard it all as nul et non avenub and to reverse it when occasion presents itself. It was my view that this would have been prudent at the outbreak of war; now, however, that the lot of ceding territory falls to the French, it is essential, otherwise they will all raise a terrible hullaballoo.
Tell Tussy that my wife* is very grateful to her for her letter, and she will shortly receive an answer. With best regards to you all,
Your
F. E.
40. Marx to Edward Spencer Beesly. 12 September
My dear Sir,
Last Wednesday13 A. Serraillier, a member of the General Council of the International Workmen's Association, went to Paris as the plenipotentiary of the Council. He thought it his duty to remain there, not only for taking part in the defence, but to bring his influence to bear upon our Paris Federal Council, and he is, in point of fact, a man of superior intellectual quality. His wife was to-day informed of his resolution. Unfortunately, she is not only sans sou,c she and her child, but the creditors of Serraillier having claims to the amount of about £12, threaten to sell her furniture and throw her on the street. Under these circumstances I and my friends have resolved to come to the rescue, and it is for this that I take the liberty to call, by this letter, also on you and your friends.
You will find that the Addressd I laid before the General Council, Friday last, and which is in course of printing, coincides on many points almost literally with your pamphlet.e
My opinion is, that Paris will be forced to capitulate, and from the private letters I receive from Paris it appears that some influential members of the Provisional Government are prepared for such a turn of events.
Serraillier writes me to-day that the haste with which the Prussians march upon Paris, is the only thing in the world able to prevent a new Insurrection of ]uneuî\ Paris fallen, France will be far from lost if the provinces do their duty.
The Federal Council of Paris bombards me with telegrams, all to this effect: Recognition of the French Republic by England. In point of fact, it is most important for France. It is the only thing you can at present do for her. The King of Prussiaa treats officially Bonaparte as the ruling Sovereign of France. He wants to restore him. The French Republic will not exist officially before its recognition by the British Government. But no time is to be lost. Will you allow your Queen b and your oligarchs, under the dictation of Bismarck, to abuse the immense influence of England?
Yours faithfully,
Karl Marx
Apropos. There is just now much useless talk in the English Press about 'our defences'. In case of a war with Prussia or the other military powers of the Continent, you have one, but this one an infallible, means of attack — to destroy their maritime commerce. You can do so only by re-vindicating your 'maritime rights', which by a Ministerial intrigue, not by any sanction of Parliament, were in the Paris Treaty of 1856 surrendered to Russia. Russia considers this point of such decisive importance, that she caused Prussia, at the very commencement of this war, to exaggerate those clauses of the Paris 'understanding'.[114] Prussia was, of course, but too willing. In the first instance she had no navy. In the second instance, it is, of course, the common interest of the continental military powers to make England, the only great maritime power of Europe, surrender the most telling means of maritime warfare on the plea of humanity! The privilege of inhumanity — and you can make no war in a 'humane' way — being reserved for the land forces! Besides, this diplomatic 'philan-thropy' supposes that property — always on sea, not on land — is more sacred than human life. This is the reason why the stultified English manufacturers and merchants allowed themselves to be duped by the Paris clauses on maritime war — of no possible use to them, because not accepted by the United States. And only in a war with them such a proviso could be of any value to the
41. Engels to Marx. 13 September
moneymongers of England. The contempt with which England is at present treated by Prussia and Russia (the latter marching quietly to India) is only due to their knowledge that in an offensive land war she can do nothing, and that for a maritime war, where she could be everything, she has disarmed herself, or has been rather disarmed by the arbitrary act of Clarendon, acting under the secret instructions of Palmerston. Declare to-morrow that these clauses of the Paris treaty — not even drawn up in the form of treaty clauses — are waste paper, and I warrant you the tone of the continental bullies will change at once.
41
ENGELS TO MARX[81]
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 13 September 1870
Dear Moor,
The Prussians really are incorrigible jackasses! On the orders of Vogel von Falckenstein, they have arrested the whole unfortunate Social-Democratic Committee in Brunswick, including the printer" of the well-intentioned and undoubtedly tame proclamation, and have transported them as a body to Lötzenb in East Prussia.[115]
You know that on the pretext of a French landing almost the whole of Northern Germany has been put under martial law, so that the military authorities can arrest people at will. Fortunately, the immediate deportation to East Prussia proves that they are just going to be held in custody until peace is concluded, and not brought before a court martial in which case the lieutenants who have received instructions to hand out punishments would have given them a good ten years hard labour or imprisonment in a fortress. It is clear, though, how panic-stricken the wretches are at the very mention of the word 'Republic', and how ill at ease the official world feels when it has no prisoners of state.
42. Marx to Engels. 14 September
As time goes by, the war is altogether taking on an unpleasant face. The French have not yet been thrashed sufficiendy and the German jackasses have already won far too many victories. Victor Hugo is writing absurdities in French," and the handsome William is putting the German language to shame.b
'Now fare thee well with throbbing heart at the end of such a letter.' What a king! And of the most educated0 nation in the world! And his wifed has it printed! If this sort of thing goes on for another week, people will think that both sides can, etc., etc.
Now fare thee well with throbbing heart, or not, at the end of such a letter.
Your
F. E.
42
MARX TO ENGELS[76]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 14 September 1870
DEAR FRED,
Am sending 12 COPIES of the ADDRESS e at the same time as this letter. Various minor printing errors, small words omitted, etc., but nothing that distorts the meaning. This will be corrected in the second edition. You must bear in mind that the GENERAL COUNCIL HAS 14 1870
TO DEAL WITH SUSCEPTIBILITIES in every direction, and so cannot write as we both could in our own names.
The news from Brunswick[115] arrived yesterday evening from Liebknecht, but with Wilhelm's usual vagueness and hence unusable. I have sent notices about it today to the Pall Mall, Echo, etc.a
The FACT itself is very good. This time the witch-hunt against the 'demagogues'[116] is beginning before the end of the war, and is aimed at workers rather than the student windbags of yore. It is very good that the Prussians are showing themselves in their true colours, and are destroying any possible illusions in the working class even before peace is concluded. Moreover, the working class can only be stirred to action by direct persecution on the part of the state.
The 'Republic'—even the mere word — has given the matter quite a new turn. E.g. Mr George Potter—that hero of the workers from the Bee-Hive—has PUBLICLY declared himself A REPUBLICAN. This shows you the mood in London. I hope that the Prussian policies of the Court will produce a lot of ill-feeling here. It is a splendid
LEVER, t h e UNCONSTITUTIONAL INTERFERENCE OF THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF G e o r g e
I I I AND THE MOTHER-IN-LAW OF F r i t Z b |
For all that Bismarck is a jackass. Just because everything went right for him as long as he was the instrument of the aspirations to German unity, he has now lost his head to such an extent that he imagines himself able to throw all scruples to the winds and pursue specific Prussian policies, not merely externally, but internally too.
Yesterday there was a workers' meeting in a pub in Lincoln Inn Fields. We were sitting in our own meeting as usual on Tuesdays. A telegram arrived TO COME TO THE RESCUE. The PEACE SOCIETY [56] fellows, who have been actively 'buying up' workers (e.g. Cremer), had as good as managed to assure themselves of a majority, albeit a slight one. Our sudden appearance TURNED THE SCALE. At issue was a number of resolutions on behalf of the FRENCH REPUBLIC, which the PEACE SOCIETY claims could lead to war with Prussia. I have today sent detailed instructions to Belgium and Switzerland, ditto to the UNITED STATES.
The enclosed letter from Serraillier0 will interest Dupont and yourself. Only a part of it is enclosed, since the other part contains 14 1870
FAMILY AFFAIRS and so has remained in the possession of M m e Serraillier.
Salut
Your
K. M. SECRETARY FOR RUSSIA!
Schäffle's book is called Kapitalismus und Socialismus etc.
43. Marx to Johann Philipp Becker. 14 September[1 1 8]
Dear Becker,
Enclosed the Address of the GENERAL COUNCIL3 for the Egalité. Tomorrow you will receive the German translation I have made (for I wrote it originally in English). T h e German translation contains a few sentences intended for Germany, notably the workers, but it was too late to insert them in the English version.
Salut
Your
K. M.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
44. Marx to César De Paepe. 14 September
Dear Citizen,
Herewith two copies of our Address,a one for L'Internationale, one for La Liberté. I have no time to translate it, Dupont is in Manchester, and Serraillier in Paris as delegate of the General Council. My time is fully occupied with correspondence with Germany and with the agitation amongst the English working men.
On 5 September our Central Committee at Brunswick published an appeal 'To the German Workers' to oppose the ANNEXATION of French territory and to support peace with the Republic.[107] On the orders of General Vogel von Falckenstein, the infamous Prussian who (in 1866) distinguished himself by his vandalism in Frankfurt,[119] not only were the copies of the manifesto seized, but all the members of the Committee — as well as the unfortunate printerb of the manifesto — were arrested, clapped in irons like criminals and transported to Lötzen,c a town in East Prussia.[115] As you know, on the pretext of a French landing, the entire coast of Northern Germany has been placed under martial law, thus enabling those gentlemen, the military, to arrest, pass sentence and shoot whenever they think fit. But even in those parts of Germany where martial law has not been proclaimed, the Prussians, aided and abetted by the middle classes, have introduced a reign of terror directed against all independent opinion. Despite this terror and despite the hubbub raised by the bourgeois patriots, the German working man is conducting himself admirably.
Unfortunately I cannot say the same of our French comrades. Their manifesto was absurd.[101] 'Recross the Rhine!' They forget that, in order to return home, the Germans have no need to recross the Rhine: rather they can simply withdraw to the Palatinate and the Khine (Prussian) Province. You can imagine how this chauvinist catchphrase has been exploited by Bismarck's official journals! The whole tone of the manifesto is absurd and contrary to the spirit of the International.
I have not had the time to copy out for you the whole of the letter I received from Serraillier, but the following passage should suffice to enlighten you on the state of affairs in Paris. It is our duty not to deceive ourselves with illusions.
'It is unbelievable that for six years people can be Internationalists, abolish frontiers, no longer recognise anyone as a foreigner, and arrive at the stage they have now reached, simply in order to preserve a factitious popularity to which they will sooner or later fall victim. When I express indignation at their conduct, they tell me that, were they to speak otherwise, they would be sent packingl Accordingly it seems to them more appropriate to deceive these unfortunate fellows over the true situation in France than to seek, at the risk of losing their popularity, to bring them back to their senses, a course that would, I believe, be of much greater use to our France. Moreover, what a situation they are creating for the International by their ultra-chauvinist discourses! How many generations may it not take to erase the profound antagonism of nationality which they are seeking to revive by whatever means their feeble imagination can suggest! Not that they are stupid, far from it. But like me they know that when you flatter the people, you deceive them; they feel they are cutting the ground from under their own feet and, I might even say, they are afraid of openly saying they are Internationalists, a foolishness from which it follows that they can think of nothing better than to parody the revolution of '93.'
This state of affairs will, I trust, all be over come the early and inevitable capitulation of Paris. The misfortune of the French and even of the working men, is to hark back to great thingsl It is essential that events should once and for all destroy this reactionary worship of the past!
The manifesto printed in the supplement to La Solidarité did not surprise me. I well knew that those who preach total abstention from politics — as though working men were monks who established a world of their own away from the world at large — would always revert to bourgeois politics at the first summons of the historic tocsin.
With the exception of a very few papers the English press has been bought, the majority by Bismarck, the minority by Louis Bonaparte, the latter having saved enough money to buy an entire army. Nevertheless I have found the means to wage a war to the death against those gentry, the Prussians.
Our friends in Paris have been bombarding me with telegrams telling me what I ought to do in Germany. I believe I am a little more familiar than the Parisians with the way in which one must deal with my compatriots.
You would oblige me by dropping me a few lines on the state of affairs in Belgium. Fraternal greetings,
Karl Marx
45. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 14 September[121]
Dear Wenzel,
The Addressa enclosed. My time is so completely taken up with 'INTERNATIONAL WORKS' that I never get to bed before three in the morning. This is to excuse my obstinate silence.
Best greetings to Madame la Comtesse and Fränzchen.b
Your
K. M.
46. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 14 September
Dear Oswald,
Enclosed are 50 COPIES of our new Address.a There are a few printing errors in it, but they do not distort the meaning. We shall correct them in the SECOND EDITION.
Our Central Committee for Germany (residing in Brunswick) issued a manifesto to the German workers on 5 September, opposing the ANNEXATION of Alsace and Lorraine and advocating the recognition of the French Republic, etc.[107] On the orders of Vogel von Falckenstein not only were the copies of the manifesto confiscated, but also all the members of the Committee—and the unfortunate printer,[13] were arrested INTO THE BARGAIN and transported as a body to Lötzenb in East Prussia.[116] I have immediately sent reports of the affairc to various London papers and shall see if they print them.
The victory in yesterday's meeting over the people who were partly in the pay of the PEACE SOCIETY, d and partly unindoctrinated, was QUITE ACCIDENTAL. We were just holding the usual Tuesday meeting of the General Council of the International when our friends telegraphed from the Strand TO COME TO THE RESCUE since they would otherwise have been out-voted. And this is just what we did.[117]
You must forgive me for not answering sooner. I am so [overwhelmed] with INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS that, since my return,[53]
I have been unable to get to bed before three in the morning.
Liebknecht has foolishly forgotten to give me a secret address. All letters sent direct to him are INTERCEPTED by the police.
I shall look out some copies of the Volksstaat for you, but I must have them back, together with those I have already given you, since I am collecting them.
Yours,
K. Marx
Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 33, Moscow, 1964
47. Marx to Johann Philipp Becker. 15 September
Dear Becker,
I sent a translation(1) to the Volksstaat a few days ago, because more urgent. However, this version is improved in a number of places.
Salut
Your
K. M.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
48. Marx to Engels. 16 September
48
MARX T O ENGELS [1 2 2]
IN MANCHESTER
London, 16 September 1870
In great haste
DEAR FRED,
Let Dupont reply to the Marseilles people (incl. their manifesto [1 2 3] and letter) and put them in their place — in the name of the GENERAL COUNCIL. At the same time h e can send them our manifesto.[3] If he needs them I can send him new copies from here.
As to the manifesto itself, apart from The Spectator which has written it u p in an article too clever by half, and the brief extract in the Pall MalL,b all the London PAPERS have tried to BURKE us.
Salut
Your
K. M.
49. Marx to Edward Spencer Beesly. 16 September
My dear Sir,
You must excuse my bothering you again with a letter, but à la guerre comme à la guerre.c The worst anticipations of the two Addresses of the General Council of the International3 have already been realised.
Having declared to make war against Louis Bonaparte and not against the French people, Prussia makes now war upon the French people and peace with Bonaparte. It has let out the murder. It has declared its intention of restoring him or his family to the Tuileries. The infamous Times affects to-day to treat this as mere gossip.b It knows, or ought to know that the thing has been printed in the Berlin Staats-Anzeiger (the Prussian Moniteur). From semi-official Prussian papers, such as the Cologne Gazette,0 I see that that old ass, King William, true to his Hohenzollern family traditions, already prostrates himself at the feet of the Czard and implores him to be so magnanimous as to employ him as his man-servant against the Turks! Lastly, the reaction has already set in in Germany. Our people at Brunswick, to begin with, have, as I wrote you, been marched off in chains like common felons to the Eastern frontier.[115] But this is only one fact amongst hundreds.
After the first war of German Independence against Napoleon I,e the wild and ferocious Government's chase upon the so-called demagogues (die demagogischen Untersuchungen ) lasted fully for 20 years![116] but they set in only after the end of the war. They now begin before the conclusion of peace.
Then their persecutions were directed against the windy idealists and frothy youths (the students at the Universities) of the middle class, bureaucracy and aristocracy. They are now directed against the working class.
For my part, / am delighted at all those misdeeds of the Prussian Government. They will stir Germany. Now what I think you ought to do is this: The first Address of the General Council on the war was only published in full by the Pall Mall? but extracts and even leading articles on it appeared in many other papers. This time, although the Address has been forwarded to all London papers, not one has taken the least notice of it, except the Pall Mall, which gives a very short extract.11
(By-the-by, this paper, which handles you so nicely in its yesterday's number, has certain private obligations towards me, I having proposed there my friend Engels' Notes on the War. I did so at the request of A — B— a who, from time to time, had smuggled some paragraphs on the 'International' into the Pall Mali Hence our second address is not altogether burked in that paper.)
From the Continent, where people were and are used, even at Moscow and St Petersburg, even in the French papers under the Bonapartist rule, even now at Berlin, to see the manifestoes of the International treated seriously and reproduced in full by some journal or other, we have been once and again taunted for our negligence in not using the 'free' London press. They have, of course, no idea whatsoever, and will not believe in the utter corruption, of that vile concern, long since branded by William Cobbett as 'mercenary, infamous, and illiterate'.
Now I believe you would do the greatest possible service to the International, and I should take good care to have your article reproduced in our journals in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Hungary, Germany, France, and the United States — if you in the Fortnightly Review would publish something on the International,b the manifestoes of the General Council on the war and the treatment we have to undergo at the hands of that paragon press, that 'free' English press! Those fellows are in fact more enslaved to the Prussian police than the Berlin papers.
Lafargue, now editor of a paper at Bordeaux,c sends you and Mrs Beesly his best compliments.
Yours truly,
Karl Marx
50. Marx to Eugen Oswald. 23 September
Dear Oswald,
Herewith the Volksstaat (Nos. 72-76) and the Volkswille (No. 34), both of which I must have back by Monday NEXT.*
I only receive occasional copies of the Zukunft. The copies that Engels has have not yet been unpacked, any more than the rest of the furniture he has JUST brought down from Manchester.[125] This is also the reason why I cannot yet accept your kind invitation. I must first get Engels AND his FAMILY settled in.
I am toto oveloh opposed to your neutralisation plan [126] and have already expressed my views to this effect in detail after hearing about the plan from another direction.
If people were SERIOUSLY concerned about the military security of Germany, it would meet the case exactly if the fortresses of Metz and Strasbourg were to be razed to the ground.
Bismarck knows this. He also knows that on this side neutralisa-tion can achieve no more and that it would contribute much less, in fact nothing, towards the reconciliation with France that will again become necessary in the future. It is one of those measures that ruin everything and settle nothing.
Consider further that the entire opposition in Germany is only a real power, a power that grows as a result of persecution by the government, because and insofar as it makes a strong stand on principle.
This is appreciated not only by the workers but even by people like Jacoby, people like Ludwig Simon of Trier and even Jakob Venedey! Once such a motley opposition starts playing around with diplomacy, all is lost. It would gain nothing at all through such diplomacy but on the contrary, by involving itself with C c
it would lose the right to declare: Annex, IF YOU PLEASE. We declare these annexations non avenuesA\
Du reste* Jules Favre, and not Thiers, is the man of the moment. Razing the fortresses was first proposed in the official Journal de Pétersbourgny and was taken up at once by the French Provisional Government. If anything is powerful enough to break the hold of the military canaille on the handsome William(1) it is such hints from Petersburg.
Yours,
K. M.
Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 33, Moscow, 1964
51. Marx to Edward Spencer Beesly. 19 October
My dear Sir,
Deak is against the workmen. He is, in fact, a Hungarian edition of an English Whig.
As to Lyons,[128] I have received letters not fit for publication. At first everything went well. Under the pressure of the 'International' section, the Republic was proclaimed before Paris had taken that step. A revolutionary Government was at once established— La Commune—composed partly of workmen belonging to the 'International', partly of Radical middle-class Republicans. The octrois were at once abolished, and rightly so. The Bonapartist and Clerical intriguers were intimidated. Energetic measures were taken to arm the whole people. The middle class began if not really to sympathise with, at least to quietly undergo, the new order of things. The action of Lyons was at once felt at Marseilles and Toulouse, where the 'International' sections are strong.
But the asses, Bakunine and Cluseret, arrived at Lyons and spoiled everything. Belonging both to the 'International', they had, unfortunately, influence enough to mislead our friends. The Hotel de Ville was seized — for a short time — and most foolish decrees
Published in English for the first time on the abolition de l'état* and similar nonsense were issued. You understand that the very fact of a Russian — represented by the middle class papers as an agent of Bismarck — pretending to impose himself as the leader of a Comité du Salut de la Franceb was quite sufficient to turn the balance of public opinion. As to Cluseret, he behaved both as a fool and a coward. These two men have left Lyons after their failure.
At Rouen, as in most other industrial towns of France, the sections of the International, following the example of Lyons, have enforced the official admission into the 'committees of defence'10S
of the working-class element.
Still, I must tell you that according to all information I receive from France, the middle class on the whole prefers Prussian conquest to the victory of a Republic with Socialist tendencies.
Yours truly,
Karl Marx
I send you a copy of the New-York Tribune which I received yesterday. You will oblige me by returning it after perusal. It contains an article on the International, penned I do not know by whom, but to guess from style and manner, Mr Dana might be the writer.
I forward also three copies of the Défense nationale, which Lafargue sends you with his compliments.
52. Marx to Peter Imandt. 11 November
Your nephew0 arrived yesterday morning. Your letter came today. However, we have resolved in a full family council that 11 1870
Imandt junior should stay here until Wednesday [3] and then leave on the steamer.
Firstly, as far as his departure itself is concerned, we do not wish to lose the pleasure of his company so soon, and it will d o him good to take a breather.
Secondly, quoad(1) the method of travel, he arrived here from Southampton quite frozen, and the train journey to Dundee would be far too exhausting for him (and it would be even worse in the 3rd class), whereas travelling FIRST CLASS by boat for 20sh., he would receive his due measure of warmth.
H e is a very sound and well-educated young man who has given us all immense pleasure.
I hope that you are satisfied with this arrangement. Salut
Your
K. M.
Apropos, o u r Wilhelm, not rex, but Wilhelm Liebknecht is a real thorn in the side of the Prussians with his Volksstaat even though he imagines, in his narrow-minded way, that he always has to say black when the enemy says white and vice versa. In consequence he takes all the phrases of someone like Gambetta and his consorts at their face value a n d so constantly deceives his readers on matters of fact in just the same way as the French are entertained with FALSE NEWS by their GOVERNORS.
Mr Freiligrath, meanwhile, has become the producer of feelings for the NATIONAL LIBERAL PHILISTINE. And rightly so. H e has to give something in return for the proceeds of the collections WHICH HE HAS POCKETED.
Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 33, Moscow, 1964
53. Marx to the Dutch and Flemish Internationals. Between 3 and 9 December gj 54. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 13 December
IN BRUSSELS
[London, between 3 and 9 December 1870]
We request our friends in the Netherlands to send their organs De Werkman, Asmodée, De Toekomst, De Werker of Antwerp, etc., regularly to the General Council of the International Association in London at the following address:
Karl Marx, Modena Villa, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill, London, England.
54
MARX TO LUDWIG KUGELMANN ,21
IN HANOVER
London, 13 December [1870]
Dear Kugelmann,
You must explain my long silence by the fact that during the war, which has taken most of the FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS of the GENERAL COUNCIL to France, I have had to conduct practically the entire international correspondence, which is no trifle. Apart from that, with the 'postal freedom' prevailing now in Germany and particularly in the North German Confederation,[55] and quite 'particularly' in Hanover, it is dangerous — not for me, it is true, but for my German correspondents — if I write them my opinion of the war, and what else can one write about at the present moment?
For example, you ask me for our first Address on the war. I had sent it to you. It has obviously been intercepted. Today I am enclosing the two Addresses issued as a pamphlet,3 as well as Professor Beesly's article in The Fortnightly Review^ and today's Daily News. Since this paper has a Prussian tinge, the things will probably get through. Professor Beesly is a Comtist and is as such obliged to support all sorts of CROTCHETS, but for the rest a very capable and brave man. He is professor of history at London University.
It seems that Germany was not satisfied with capturing Bonaparte, his generals and his army; with him, imperialism too, with all its infirmities, has acclimatised itself in the land of the oak and the linden.
As to the German bourgeois, I am not at all surprised by his obsession with conquest. First of all, to seize things is the vital principle of every bourgeoisie and to take foreign provinces is after all 'taking'. And then the German citizen has dutifully accepted so many kicks from his sovereigns, and particularly from the Hohenzollerns, that it must be a real pleasure to him when, for a change, those kicks are administered to the foreigner.
In any case this war has freed us from the 'bourgeois republicans'. It has put a horrible end to that crew. And that is an important result. It has given our professors the best opportunity of damning themselves in the eyes of the whole world as servile pedants. The relations which will come in its wake are the best propaganda for our principles.
Here in England public opinion on the outbreak of war was ultra-Prussian; it has now turned into the opposite. In the cafés chantants, for example, the German singers with their Watch on the Rhinec are hissed off while French singers with the Marseillaise are accompanied in choro. Apart from the decided sympathies of the mass of the people with the Republic and the irritation of the RESPECTABILITY about the alliance between Prussia and Russia — now as clear as daylight — and the shameless tone of Prussian diplomacy since the military successes, the way in which the war has been conducted — the requisitioning system, the burning down of villages, the shooting of francs-tireurs,[130] the taking of hostages and similar recapitulations of the Thirty Years' War[131]—all this has aroused universal indignation here. OF COURSE, the English have done the same in India, Jamaica, etc., but the French are neither Hindus, nor Chinese, nor Negroes, and the Prussians are no HEAVEN-BORN ENGLISHMEN. It is a truly Hohenzollern idea that a people commits a crime in continuing to defend itself once its regular army has disappeared. In fact, the war of the Prussian people against Napoleon I was a real thorn in the side of the gallant Frederick William III, as you can see from Professor Pertz's life of Gneisenau," who made the war of francs-tireurs into a system through his Landsturm regulations.[132] The fact that the people fought on their own initiative and independent of the all-highest's order gave Frederick William III no peace.
However, the last word has not yet been spoken. The war in France can still take a very 'unpleasant' turn. The resistance put up by the Loire Army [133] was 'beyond' calculation, and the present scattering of the German forces right and left is merely to instil fear, but in fact only results in awakening the power of defence at every point and weakening the offensive force. The threatened bombardment of Paris is also a mere trick. On the town of Paris itself it can, by all the rules of probability, have no serious effect. If a few outworks are destroyed, a few breaches made, what help is that when the besieged outnumber the besiegers? And if the besieged made exceptionally good SORTIES, when the enemy defended himself behind ENTRENCHMENTS, how much better would they not fare when the roles are reversed?
To starve Paris out is the only real way. But if it is delayed long enough to allow armies to be formed and the people's war to develop in the provinces, even that will do nothing except transfer the centre of gravity. Moreover, even after the surrender of Paris, which cannot be held and kept quiet by a mere handful, a large part of the INVADERS would be maintained in idleness.
But however the war may end, it has given the French proletariat practice in arms, and that is the best guarantee of the future.
The shameless tone which Russia and Prussia adopt towards England may have wholly unexpected and unpleasant results for them. The matter simply stands like this: By the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856 England disarmed herself.ni England is a sea power and can counterpose to the great continental military powers only the weapon of naval warfare. The certain method here is temporarily to destroy, or bring to a standstill, the overseas trade of the continental powers. This mainly depends on operating the principle of seizing enemy goods in neutral vessels. This MARITIME RIGHT (as well as other similar RIGHTS) was surrendered by the English in the so-called Declaration attached to the Paris Treaty. Clarendon did this on the secret order of the Russian Palmerston. The Declaration, however, is not an integral part of the treaty itself and has never been legally ratified in England. The Russian and Prussian gendemen are reckoning without their host if they imagine that the influence of the Queen,3 who is Prussianised from FAMILY INTEREST, and the bourgeois feeble-mindedness of a Gladstone, would at a decisive moment keep John Bull from throwing this self-created 'charming obstacle'b overboard. And he can then strangle Russian-German overseas trade in a few weeks. We shall then have an opportunity of studying the long faces of the Petersburg and Berlin diplomats, and the still longer faces of the 'power patriots'.— Qui vivra, verra.0
MY BEST COMPLIMENTS TO Madame la Comtesse AND Fränzchen.
Your
K. M.
Apropos. Can you let me have Windthorst's various Reichstag speeches?
56. Engels to Natalie Liebknecht. 19 December
55. Engels to Frederick Greenwood. 17 December
A friend of mine Mr Oswald sends me the enclosed. He says that the usual tickets have been sent to The Pall Mall Gazette and wishes me to say a word in favour of Mrs Oswald's tonight's concert being noticed in that paper, or at least to induce your musical critic to go and hear her. I have told him that this is entirely out of my line and that I even do not know how to go about such a thing. However he insists, and as he is a very worthy fellow I can only say, that if you can consistently do something in that direction you will confer a personal favour upon me. I am too bad a musician to permit myself an opinion but I have heard people who ought to know, speak very highly of Mrs Oswald's play..
56
ENGELS TO NATALIE LIEBKNECHT
IN LEIPZIG
London, 19 December 1870 122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.
Dear Mrs Liebknecht,
We have just received the news that Liebknecht, Bebel and Hepner were arrested yesterday. It is the revenge of the Prussians for the moral defeats suffered by the Prussian Empire at the hands of Liebknecht and Bebel even before it was born.[134] We all rejoiced here at the courageous behaviour of both of them in the Reichstag under circumstances where it was really no small achievement to put forward our views freely and defiantly. We suppose that their arrest was motivated above all by petty revenge and the wish to destroy the papera as well as to make their re-election impossible. The indictment for high treason will turn out to be pure moonshine. But the Prussian gentlemen may well be greatly mistaken, for in view of the really admirable reaction of the German workers which has even compelled that swine Schweitzer to acknowledge the leadership of Liebknecht and Bebel, this coup de force may well completely miss the target, and rather provoke the opposite to what was intended. The German workers have displayed an understanding and energy during the war which puts them at the head of the European workers' movement at a stroke, and you will appreciate the sense of pride with which we witness it.
However, we also have the duty to make sure, as best we can, that our arrested friends and their families in Germany do not suffer need, especially at this time when the approaching Christmas season is in any case being so bitterly spoilt for them. We have therefore taken the liberty of enclosing a £5 note of the Bank of England 'B/10, 04841, London, 12 October 1870' and would ask you to share it with Mrs Bebel.
We also enclose 7 thalers collected by the local German Workers' Educational Society[135] and intended for the families of the Brunswickers who have been arrested.[115] Might I ask you to sign and return the enclosed receipt for the latter, so that it may be returned to the Society as proof that Marx has duly forwarded it.
My wifeb is a revolutionary Irishwoman and so you can imagine the rejoicings at home here yesterday on hearing the news that the condemned Fenians had been amnestied — albeit in the shabbiest, most Prussian of ways.[136] And then to have to hear of the arrest of our friends in Germany immediately afterwards!
Farewell, dear Mrs Liebknecht, and do not lose heart. The Prussians, and the Russians, their masters, have started something that they will be unable to finish.
With my warmest sympathy,
Yours,
Frederick Engels The Marx family sends its best regards to you and fond greetings to the children.
First published in Die Neue Zeit, Bd. 2, Printed according to the original Nr. 6, Stuttgart, 1915 1871
57
Endnotes
[6] The Fenians were Irish revolutionaries who named themselves after the 'Féne'—the name of the ancient inhabitants of Ireland. Their first organisations appeared in the 1850s in the USA among the Irish immigrants and later in Ireland itself. The secret Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, as the organisation was known in the early 1860s, aimed at establishing an independent Irish republic by means of an armed uprising. The Fenians, who expressed the interests of the Irish peasantry, came chiefly from the urban petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia and believed in conspiratorial tactics. The British Government attempted to suppress the Fenian movement with drastic police action.—3
[8] Marx is alluding to Léo Frankel's article 'Ein belauschtes Zwiegespräch' in the Volkswille, No. 10, 2 April 1870, in which Frankel evolved a 'formula' that, he thought, explained the essence of value. See also Marx's letter to Engels of 14 April 1870 (present edition, Vol. 43).—4
[14] The reference is to the report on a meeting organised by members of the German colony in Manchester at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. One of the aims of the meeting was to set up a relief fund for the wounded and the families of the war dead. The report was published in The Manchester Guardian, No. 7466, on 22 July 1870 under the heading 'Meeting of Germans in Manchester'.— 8
[18] 'Departing for Syria' (Partant pour la Syrie')—the opening words of a song written in the early 19th century. During the Second Empire it became a sort of Bonapartist anthem and was sung at festivities arranged by Napoleon III.—
[22] In the German original the term Haupt- und Staatsaktionen (principal and spectacular actions) is used; this has several meanings. In the 17th and the first half of the 18th century it denoted plays performed by German touring companies. The term can also denote major political events.— 11
[25] This letter was written in English. It was first published in full (in English) in Annali Milan, 1958, an. 1.—12
[27] On this see also Engels' 'Notes on the War.—I' in The Pall Mall Gazette, No. 1703, 29 July 1870 (present edition, Vol. 22).—13
[28] Marx sent to Paul and Laura Lafargue a clipping from Der Volksstaat, No. 59, 23 July 1870, with a report from Berlin which quoted the declaration made by Bebel and Liebknecht in the Reichstag on 21 July 1870. He may also have enclosed the 'Politische Uebersicht' column from the same issue, dealing with the attitude of the German working class to the Franco-Prussian War. On Bebel's and Liebknecht's declaration in the Reichstag see Note 31.—14
[33] Engels attached these calculations to his article 'Notes on the War.—III', which he enclosed with his letter to Marx. As from 31 July Engels forwarded his articles directly to The Pall Mall Gazette.—20
[35] The Turcos or Algerian riflemen—French light infantry formed in the early 1840s from native inhabitants of Algeria (the officers and some of the NCOs were French).—21
[37] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx on Revolution. Translated by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1971.—22, 504
[3 8] The agenda for the next Congress of the International, to be opened in Mainz on 5 September 1870, was drawn up by Marx and approved by the General Council on 12 July 1870 (see present edition, Vol. 21). The text adopted by the Council was issued in English as a leaflet entitled The Fifth Annual Congress of the International Working Men's Association and appeared in a number of English, French and German papers. On 14 July 1870 Marx sent to Hermann Jung the French text of the agenda for translation into German (see present edition, Vol. 43, pp. 537-38). The corrected German translation was published in Der Volksstaat, No. 65, on 13 August 1870.—25
[39] Marx is referring to an attempt by the Bakuninists to gain a false majority at the Congress of the Romance Federation held in La Chaux-de-Fonds between 4 and 6 April 1870 (see Note 9), by sending delegates from minor and often non-existent sections, with a view to usurping the leadership of the Romance Federation of the International.—25
[40] On 17 May 1870 the General Council decided to convene the Fifth Congress of the International in Mainz. On 2 August 1870 the General Council resolved to defer the Congress owing to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and ask the sections of the International for approval of its decision. The Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party, the German sections in Switzerland, and the Belgian and Romance Federations of the International supported the General Council's proposal. On 23 August 1870 the Council officially decided to defer the Congress.—25, 33
[41] The Pan-Slavic Congress met in Prague on 2 June 1848. It was attended by representatives of the Slavic countries forming part of the Habsburg Empire. The Right, liberal moderate wing, sought to solve the national problem through autonomy of the Slavic countries within the framework of the Habsburg monarchy. The Left, radical wing, wanted to act in alliance with the revolutionary-democratic movement in Germany and Hungary. Mikhail Bakunin affiliated with the Left. Radical delegates took an active part in the popular uprising in Prague (12-17 June 1848), directed against the arbitrary rule of the Austrian authorities, and were subjected to cruel reprisals.—26
[42] From 3 to 9 May 1849, Dresden, the capital of Saxony, was the scene of an armed uprising caused by the refusal of the Saxon King to recognise the Imperial Constitution. The insurgents captured a considerable part of the city, the workers being the most active among the barricade fighters. The Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, the German working-class leader Stephan Born, and the composer Richard Wagner were active participants in the uprising.—27
[4 3] Marx is referring to the articles by Sigismund Borkheim, 'Russische Briefe. VIII-X. Michael Bakunin, XI. Ein russischer penny-a-liner', which were published anonymously in Die Zukunft between July and November 1869. Analysing Bakunin's articles which had appeared in Russian, Borkheim criticised the author mainly for his Pan-Slavist ideas and the idealisation of the Russian peasant commune.—27, 404
[47] Speaking in the House of Commons on 1 August 1870, Disraeli dwelt upon the idea of rapprochement between Britain and Russia. He pointed out that they were the only powers to have abided by the provisions of the Vienna Treaty of 1815 which guaranteed Prussia the right to Saxony. Speaking in this connection on the Polish question, Marx had in mind the violation of the terms of the Vienna Treaty concerning the Constitution of the Polish lands. Thus in 1832, following the suppression of the Polish uprising, the tsarist government, with the connivance of the Western powers, abrogated the Constitution in that part of Poland which was annexed to Russia in 1815 as an autonomous region. The same thing happened with regard to the guarantees of the autonomous rights of the Cracow Republic,whose territory was seized by Austria in 1846 after the suppression of the Cracow insurrection.—33
[48] On 23 July 1870 La Solidarité published the General Council's resolution on the Federal Committee of Romance Switzerland (see Note 9) signed by Hermann Jung, the Council's Corresponding Secretary for Switzerland. The editors of La Solidarité added their comments on the resolution, denying the right of the General Council to decide on this issue.—33, 36
[4 9] The first open clash between the adherents of scientific socialism and the Bakuninists over abolishing the right of inheritance came at the Basle Congress (September 1869). Since none of the proposals produced an absolute majority the Basle Congress did not adopt any resolution on this question.— 33
[51] Marx wrote this letter on a form from Borkheim' s office bearing its address: 9 Billiter Square, E.C.—36
[52] The original version of the General Council's resolution, written by Marx on 22 December 1868, 'The International Working Men's Association and the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy', made the point that is was necessary to publish this resolution in all countries where sections of the International existed. This point was omitted from the final text (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 36).—37
[57] Engels worked on The History of Ireland in the latter months of 1869 and during the first half of 1870. However, this work remained unfinished. Engels wrote the first chapter ('Natural Conditions') and part of the second chapter ('Old Ireland'), which are contained in Volume 21 of the present edition; the preparatory materials for the book will be found in part in Volume 21 and also in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Ireland and the Irish Question, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978.—40, 329
[59] Engels alludes to Henri de Rochefort, editor of La Marseillaise, a Left Republican paper. From February 1870, he had been serving a six-month term in the Sainte-Pelagie prison for an article published in the newspaper on 12 January 1870, after the assassination of the journalist Victor Noir by Prince Pierre Bonaparte. La Marseillaise was suppressed from 18 May to 20 July 1870 for its articles directed against the ruling circles of the Second Empire, and on 9 September it ceased publication altogether.—41
[60] The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 to coincide with the celebrations of Schiller's centenary, was conceived as a cultural and social centre for the city's German colony. In 1864 Engels became a member of its Directorate and later President of the Institute, devoting much time to it and exercising considerable influence over its activities. In September 1868 while Engels was away from Manchester, the Directorate invited Karl Vogt, who had connections with Bonapartist circles, to give a lecture at the Institute. This caused Engels to resign his positions (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 18). In April 1870 Engels was again elected a member of the Directorate, but he no longer took an active part in its work.—43
[62] Marx wrote this letter to Jung after he had received resolutions from the Central Committee of the German-speaking sections in Switzerland which endorsed the General Council's proposal to defer the regular congress of the International due on 5 September 1870. A copy, handwritten by Marx, of the resolution of the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party was enclosed with the letter.—44
[63] By a decision of the Vienna Congress of 1815, the northern regions of Savoy (Chablais, Faucigny and Geneves), which formed part of the Sardinian Kingdom, were declared a neutral zone. After Savoy and Nice had been annexed by France in 1859, Switzerland laid claim to these neutral regions.—45
[6 5] Engels is referring to workers employed in the large-scale replanning and reconstruction of Paris, a project headed by Georges Eugène Haussmann, the Prefect of the Seine Department, in the 1850s and 1860s. The purpose of the reconstruction was not only to improve the aristocratic areas and widen streets to make it easier for the troops to manoeuvre and the artillery to fire in the event of a popular uprising; it was also planned to reinforce Bonapartist influence among the section of the proletariat that received temporary employment as a result of this project.—46
[67] In his letter of 7 August 1870 Kugelmann informed Marx of the national enthusiasm that the war had given rise to in Germany.—47
[6 8] The Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund)—an association of the states of Western and Southern Germany founded in 1806 under the protectorate of Napoleon. Initially it embraced 16 states. Five more joined later. All virtually became vassals of Napoleonic France. The Confederation collapsed in 1813 after the military defeats suffered by Napoleon in Germany.—47
[6 9] In his letter to Marx of 13 August 1870 Liebknecht quoted the Elberfelder Zeitung as saying that Engels was in a state of 'patriotic euphoria'.—48
[70] The chassepot—a breech-loading rifle named after its inventor, was adopted by the French army in 1866. It was much superior to Dreyse's needle gun used by the Prussian army.—48
[71] Engels is referring to the German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei) which was set up in 1865 and consisted of democratic elements of the petty bourgeoisie and partly of the bourgeoisie, chiefly from South German states. As distinct from the National Liberals, the German People's Party opposed the establishment of Prussian supremacy in Germany and advocated a so-called Greater Germany embracing both Prussia and Austria. While pursuing an anti-Prussian policy and advancing general democratic slogans, the People's Party at the same time voiced the particularist aspirations of some German states.—48
[72] Engels wrote this letter in reply to Mrs Marx's letter of 10 August 1870 (see this volume, pp. 555-56).—49
[73] The Pall Mall Gazette of 9 August 1870 carried the article 'England's Position' which was written in the form of a letter and signed with the pseudonym 'Von Thunder-ten-Tronckh' (Thunder-ten-Tronckh is a castle in Westphalia).—50
[74] Engels means the portrait of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, a Fenian leader, which Ludwig Kugelmann asked to be sent for a collection of Irish folk songs entitled Erins Harfe being prepared for publication by Joseph Risse. At the request of Marx's eldest daughter Jenny, Engels wrote short notes for the Preface (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 140). However, neither Rossa's portrait nor Engels' notes appeared in the collection, which was published in Hanover in 1870.—50, 54, 557
[77] Engels calls Alsace and Lorraine a ' German-speaking Venetia', by analogy with the Italian province of Venetia, which was part of the Habsburg Empire in 1799-1805 and 1814-1866 and a stronghold of the Italian national liberation movement against Austrian oppression.—53
[78] After the Batde of Gravelotte, which took place on 18 August 1870 (in historical literature it is also known as the Battle of Saint Privat), the Army of the Rhine under Bazaine was surrounded in Metz and surrendered in late October 1870.—53
[79] This refers to the defeats which the French army suffered at the Battle of Colombey-Nouilly (known also as the Batde of Borny) on 14 August 1870, the Batde of Vionville-Mars-la-Tour on 16 August, and the Batde of Gravelotte-Saint Privat on 18 August.—53
[80] An allusion to the Battle of Gravelotte (see Note 78).—54
[82] The Times of 22 August 1870 published a letter by Francis Douglas Elcho, M.P., in which he expressed his views concerning the organisation of the armed forces in Germany, France and Britain.—55
[84] This letter was published in English for the first time, in part, in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934] and in full in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895. A Selection, International Publishers, New York, 1953.—56
[85] Marx wrote this letter in reply to several letters from Sorge, written between 4 May and 4 August 1870. A correspondence developed, linking Marx, and also Engels, with Sorge in close friendship for many years.—56
[87] At the beginning of 1870, Gustave Paul Cluseret was empowered by the General Council to establish contacts with the French sections in the USA. However, passing himself off as an organiser of the International, Cluseret ignored the already existing sections in the USA and went beyond his brief. Several sections, including Section No. 1 (see Note 354), protested at Cluseret's behaviour and contacted the General Council, Johann Philipp Becker and Eugene Varlin with an inquiry about the powers granted to Cluseret. Marx replied to the inquiry in his letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt of 9 April 1870 (see present edition, Vol. 43).—57
[9 0] This refers to Edward Kellogg's A New Monetary System, which Marx, evidently, first read in translation. In February 1871 Sorge sent him the first edition which had appeared in New York. This copy of the book with Marx's notes and remarks is still in existence.—58
[91] In his article 'Notes on the War.—XII' Engels not only forecast the possibility of MacMahon's Chalons Army being encircled by the Prussian troops, but also pointed quite accurately to the place where it was to happen. Engels' prediction came true. On 1 and 2 September 1870, at Sedan, the Prussian troops defeated the French army under MacMahon and forced it to capitulate. Over 80,000 soldiers, officers and generals, Napoleon III among them, were taken prisoner. The Sedan catastrophe caused a revolution in Paris on 4 September 1870 which led to the collapse of the Second Empire and the proclamation of the republic in France. All power passed to the Provisional Government (known as the Government of National Defence) headed by the Orleanist Louis Jules Trochu.—58, 61
[92] The treaties of Tilsit—peace treaties signed on 7 and 9 July 1807 by Napoleonic France, and Russia and Prussia, members of the fourth anti-French coalition. In an attempt to split the defeated powers, Napoleon I made no territorial claims on Russia. However, Russia, like Prussia, had to abrogate its alliance with Britain and, to its disadvantage, join Napoleon's Continental System. The treaty of 9 July imposed harsh terms on Prussia, which ceded nearly half its territory to the German states dependent on France, was made to pay indemnities and had its army reduced.—59
[93] Marx may have had in mind rumours circulating in the press about Russia's pro-French orientation and the favourable reception given the French Ambassador, General Fleury, at the Russian court.—59
[94] Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote his poem 'An Wolfgang im Felde' on 12 August 1870 and dedicated it to his son whom he had sent to the front as a volunteer.—59
[95] On 12 August 1870 the German philosopher David Friedrich Strauss wrote an open letter to Joseph Ernest Renan, the French historian, which was published in the supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung. Strauss urged Renan to admit the justice of the rights for which Germany fought in the war and applaud her military successes.—59
[9 8] The French army under Marshal Bazaine surrendered at the fortress of Metz on 27 October 1870.—62, 68
[99] On the passage which Frederick Greenwood, the editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, added at the end of Engels' article 'Notes on the War.—XIII', see present edition, Vol. 22, Note 45. Engels provided a correct description of the siege of Strasbourg by the Prussians in his 'Notes on the War.—XVII' (see present edition, Vol. 22).—62
[15] In his letter of 18 July 1870, Eugen Oswald, a German refugee, asked Marx to sign an Address on the Franco-Prussian War drawn up by a group of French and German democratic refugees. The Address was published as a leaflet on 1870; the editions that followed were signed by Marx, Engels, 31 July Liebknecht, Bebel and other members of the International. Marx and his associates agreed to sign it on conditions outlined by Marx in his letter to Oswald of 3 August 1870 (see this volume, p. 34). Oswald enclosed with his letter an excerpt from Louis Blanc's letter in which he called for the Address on the Franco-Prussian War to be signed by as many people as possible.—9, 11, 31, 35, 36, 37, 64
[100] This letter was first published in English in full in: Marx on Revolution. Translated by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1971.—64, 561
[102] See notes 61 and 7 5 . - 6 5
[104] In May 1870 Napoleon Ill's government held a plebiscite in an attempt to strengthen the tottering regime of the Second Empire. The issues put to the vote were formulated in such a way that disapproval of the policy pursued by the Second Empire could not be expressed without opposing all democratic reforms at the same time. Despite this, 1.5 million votes were cast against the government, with 1.9 million abstentions.—67, 342
[105] A reference to the Danish War, the war waged by Prussia and Austria against Denmark in 1864; it was an important step on the way to Germany's unification under Prussian supremacy.—67
[106] At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War members of the German colony in Manchester (Carl Schorlemmer, G. Beer, J. G. Wehner and others) organised a committee to assist the war victims. Engels joined the committee but in September 1870, when the war ceased to be defensive on the German side, he withdrew.—68
[108] The General Council of the International including Marx played a major part in organising the movement of British workers for recognition of the French Republic by the British government. From 5 September mass demonstrations were held in London, Birmingham, Newcastle and other English cities.—70,
[109] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934], and K. Marx, The Civil War in France, Kerr, Chicago, 1934.—71
[111] Engels is referring to the bourgeois revolution in Spain which began in September 1868 when Queen Isabella was dethroned. In the course of the revolution Spain was declared a constitutional monarchy. It was not until February 1873 that a republic was proclaimed, but it survived less than a year. In 1874 the big bourgeoisie and landowners brought about the restoration of the Bourbons.—71
[114] This refers to the Déclaration réglant divers points de droit maritime (Declaration Regulating Various Items of Maritime Law), a supplement to the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856 which marked the end of the Crimean War of 1853-56. It was signed on 16 April 1856 by the representatives of Austria, France, Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and Turkey. The Declaration formulated the rules of war at sea, incorporating the principles of armed neutrality, which were proclaimed in 1780 by the government of Catherine II and envisaged the abolition of privateering, immunity of neutral cargo in enemy vessels and of enemy cargo in neutral vessels (with the exception of war contraband), and the recognition only of a real blockade. Lord Clarendon, British representative at the Paris Congress, signed the Declaration on behalf of his country.—74, 93
[118] This letter was written on a letterhead of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association.—78, 100, 121, 125, 190, 248, 315, 341, 354,
[119] Referring to General Vogel von Falkenstein's vandalism in 1866, Marx had in mind the following fact: on 16 July 1866, during the Austro-Prussian war, the forces under Vogel von Falkenstein occupied the free city of Frankfurt. On his orders several senators were arrested, newspapers suppressed, and a heavy military indemnity imposed on the city which, on failure to pay, was threatened with destruction. These threats by the Prussian command led to the suicide of Frankfurt's burgomaster.—79
[121] This letter was first published in English in full in: Karl Marx, Letters to Dr. Kugelmann, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow-Leningrad [1934].—81, 91, 108, 131, 157, 176, 243, 409, 412,
[117] The meeting Marx is writing about was called by the Labour Representation League (see Note 406) and trade union leaders on 13 September 1870 in honour of the French Republic. The resolution moved by George Howell was limited to the expression of sympathies with the French people. To oppose this, Robert Applegarth, a General Council member, moved a resolution that urged the British Government to use all its influence to bring an end to the war between France and Germany and to protest against any dismemberment of France. The resolution also demanded that a peace treaty be concluded on conditions that ensured a lasting peace in Europe. After a prolonged and heated discussion Applegarth's resolution was adopted by a majority of 7 votes. By instructions for Belgium, Marx probably meant his letter to César De Paepe of 14 September 1870 (see this volume, pp. 79-81). Instructions for Switzerland and the United States have not been found.—77, 82
[122] This is the last letter in the sustained correspondence between Marx in London and Engels in Manchester. After retiring from the Ermen & Engels firm in Manchester, Engels moved to London on 20 September 1870 and settled not far from where Marx lived. After that they wrote to each other only occasionally, when one of them left London.—84, 380
[123] This refers to the Manifesto of the Marseilles section of the International Working Men's Association, 'Aux travailleurs allemands!', written in the first half of September 1870 and printed originally as a leaflet and then, on 25 September, in L'Internationale, No. 89 and Bulletin de la Fédération ouvrière rouennaise, No. 3. Marx sharply criticised this Manifesto for its chauvinistic tendencies.—84
[125] Marx is speaking about Engels' move to London. See Note 122.— 87
[126] Oswald enclosed with his letter to Marx of 23 September a copy of the letter he had sent to Thiers, in which he proposed the establishment of a 'neutral zone' between France and Germany. Oswald asked Marx for his opinion on the matter.—87
[128] The news of the defeat at Sedan caused an uprising in Lyons on 4 September 1870. On his arrival in Lyons on 15 September, Bakunin tried to assume leadership of the movement and carry out his anarchist programme. On 28 September the anarchists attempted a coup d'état which was a complete failure.—88, 162
[130] Francs-tireurs—guerrilla volunteers formed into small detachments to defend France against the invaders. The Prussian command did not recognise the French guerrilla fighters as belligerents.—93
[131] The Thirty Years' War (1618-48)—a European war, in which the Pope, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs and the Catholic German princes rallied under the banner of Catholicism and fought the Protestant countries: Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, the Republic of the Netherlands and a number of Protestant German states. The rulers of Catholic France — rivals of the Habsburgs — supported the Protestant camp. Germany was the main battle arena and the object of plunder and territorial claims. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) sealed the political dismemberment of Germany.—93
[132] Landsturm regulations (Verordnung über den Landsturm)—a law adopted in Prussia on 21 April 1813. It envisaged the organisation of detachments which were to employ the methods of guerrilla warfare in the rear and on the flanks of the Napoleonic army. Engels analysed the regulations in detail in Notes on the War, 'Prussian Francs-Tireurs' (present edition, Vol. 22, p. 201).—93
[133] The Loire Army under the command of General d'Aurelle de Paladines fought near Orleans. For details of the operations by this army and its composition see Engels, Notes on the War.—XXXI and XXXII (present edition, Vol. 22).—93
[134] On 26 November 1870, when the North German Reichstag discussed the question of granting credits for the continuation of the war against France, Bebel and Liebknecht spoke against credits and for a speedy peace treaty with the French Republic without annexations. On 17 December, after the Reichstag session had drawn to a close, Bebel, Liebknecht and Hepner were arrested and charged with high treason.—95
[135] x h e German Society in London was founded in February Workers' Educational 1840 by Karl Schapper, Joseph Moll and other members of the League of the Just. The Society's leaders played a prominent part in founding the Communist League (1847). In 1847 and 1849-50, Marx and Engels took an active part in the Society's work, but on 17 September 1850 Marx, Engels and a number of their followers temporarily withdrew because the sectarian and adventurist faction led by August Willich and Karl Schapper had increased its influence in the Society. In the late 1850s Marx and Engels resumed their work in the Society. When the International was established the Society became its German Section in London and from late 1871 it was a section of the British Federation. The German Workers' Educational Society in London existed until 1918, when it was closed down by the British Government.—96, 178, 233, 279,
[136] On 19 December 1870 Times published Gladstone's letter, dated The 15 December, which announced an amnesty of the condemned Fenians (on the Fenians see Note 6). However, this amnesty was hedged round with numerous reservations, which caused Engels to compare it with the shabby amnesty of political prisoners announced in Prussia in January 1861 on the occasion of William Fs accession to the throne.—96
[1] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].—3, 30, 38, 61, 127
[2] This refers to the letter which Ludwig Kugelmann wrote to Marx on the eve of France declaring war on Prussia (18 July 1870). He expressed his conviction that any further aggravation of Franco-Prussian relations would lead to war and criticised the proclamation adopted at a meeting of Brunswick workers held on 16 July 1870. He considered it to be a mistake to demand categorically of the French workers that they overthrow the Empire in order to avert war. The meeting was called by the leaders of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party (the Eisenachers) in protest against war preparations by the ruling classes and to express solidarity with the manifesto issued by the Paris members of the International (see Le Réveil, 12 July 1870). Despite certain shortcomings the proclamation as a whole was internationalist in spirit. It is quoted by Marx in the 'First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War' (see present edition, Vol. 22).—3
[3] This refers to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.— 3
[4] The issue of Le Réveil with the article in question has not been found.—3
[5] In July and August 1870, the town of Blois was the scene of a major political trial. Seventy-two people, among them such prominent Blanquists as Charles Victor Jaclard, Edme Marie Gustave Tridon, Gustave Paul Flourens, Théophile Charles Gilles Ferré, as well as Félix Pyat, were charged with conspiring to assassinate Napoleon III and stage a coup d'état. The Supreme Court sentenced most of the accused to penal servitude and to terms varying from 5 to 20 years in prison and exile.— 3
[7] A reference to the psychological law formulated, in the mid-19th century, by Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner. It establishes the correlation between the intensity of a sensation and the intensity of the stimuli that cause it.—4
[9] At a congress of the Romance Federation held in La Chaux-de-Fonds between 4 and 6 April 1870, there occurred a split between the Bakuninists and the General Council supporters. The Bakuninist delegates, having usurped the name of the Romance Congress, elected their own Federal Committee and transferred its seat to La Chaux-de-Fonds. The General Council supporters continued their work under the leadership of the Romance Federal Committee residing in Geneva. On 28 June the General Council passed a resolution, submitted by Marx, which recognised the Geneva Committee as the Federal Committee of Romance Switzerland (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 136); the resolution was sent to both Federal Committees by Jung and published in La Solidarité, No. 16, on 23 July 1870, and in Le Mirabeau, No. 53, on 24 July 1870.—5, 26, 179, 285, 316
[10] The International Alliance of Socialist Democracy (L'Alliance internationale de la démocratie socialiste)—an international anarchist organisation founded by Mikhail Bakunin and his followers in Geneva in October 1868. The programme of the Alliance called for the immediate abolition of all states, the equalisation of classes, and the abolition of the right of inheritance. The leaders of the Alliance sought admission to the International as an autonomous international organisation within the International Working Men's Association. Their claims were rejected by the General Council (see the resolution written by Marx and approved by the General Council on 22 December 1868: 'The International Working Men's Association and the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy', present edition, Vol. 21); and only after the leaders of the Alliance had expressed their readiness to dissolve it were its sections admitted to the International, on the common terms, in 1869. Having publicly declared the dissolution of the Alliance, the Bakuninist leaders actually preserved it as a secret, conspiratorial organisation and sought to use it to boost their influence in the International as a counter to the General Council. The struggle of the revolutionary proletarian wing of the International against the Bakuninist sectarians gained momentum after the Paris Commune, and became especially sharp after the London Conference of 1871. By a decision of the Hague Congress of the International (1872), at which the existence of the secret Bakuninist Alliance and its divisive activities were exposed, its chief leaders, Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, were expelled from the International Working Men's Association.—5, 26, 163, 181, 233, 255,
[11] 1 The Landwehr—a second-line army reserve formed in Prussia during the struggle against Napoleonic rule. In the 1870s, it consisted of men under forty years of age who had seen active service and had been in the first-line reserve. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Landwehr was used in military actions on a par with the regular troops.— 7, 12, 20, 117
[12] Between the end of July 1870 and February 1871, Engels wrote a series of 59 articles published in The Pall Mall Gazette under the title Notes on the War (see present edition, Vol. 22). In these articles, written in the form of military surveys, Engels analysed the events of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 from the angle of historical materialism. With the exception of the first three articles, signed 'Z', they were published unsigned.— 7, 17, 22, 35, 56, 58, 62
[13] In 1866 The Manchester Guardian published five articles by Engels on the Austro-Prussian war under the title Notes on the War in Germany (see present edition, Vol. 20).—7
[16] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.—10, 24, 195
[17] This letter by Marx has not been found.—10, 15, 26, 33, 65, 70, 106, 176, 192,
[19] 'Lord, in Thee is all my trust' ('Jesus meine Zuversicht')—a song by Christoph Runge, a German poet and publisher, dedicated to Luise Henriette von Brandenburg, the wife of the Elector. It was first published in Runge's Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen, which appeared in Berlin in 1650.—10, 13
[20] The draft of a secret treaty between France and Prussia, drawn up in 1866, was published in the German press after 20 July 1870. On 25 July it was published in The Times. The draft treaty envisaged the annexation of Belgium and Luxembourg by France in return for which France undertook to observe neutrality in Prussia's war against Austria in 1866. By publishing the draft Bismarck sought to turn public opinion in England and Belgium against France.—11, 19
[21] On 23 January 1860 Britain and France signed a commercial treaty under which France renounced its excessively high protective tariffs. Article 2 of the treaty contained a special proviso which obliged France to lower the duties on imported British coal to 15 centimes per 100 kg. France in return was granted the right to export most of her goods to Britain duty-free.—11, 19
[23] This refers to the letter of 24 July 1870 written by the members of the Committee of the Russian Section of the International and signed by Nikolai Utin, Victor Bartenev and Anton Trusov. They wrote about the Section's struggle against Mikhail Bakunin and his attacks on members of the Russian Section as well as the Romance Federation. The authors also referred to their intention to publish a pamphlet against Bakunin (their plan was not carried out). The Committee members warned the General Council that Sergei Nechayev and Vladimir Serebrennikov had left for London and that the latter had obtained a recommendation to Dupont. Marx replied to their letter in his letter to Johann Philipp Becker of 2 August 1870 (see this volume, pp. 26-27).—11, 19, 22, 26
[24] Marx means renting a house for Engels who intended to move from Manchester to London for good in September 1870 after retiring from the firm of Ermen & Engels. Jenny Marx took an active part in looking for a suitable house.—12, 15, 19, 49, 52, 555, 558, 559
[26] Mitrailleuse—a multi-barrelled, rapid-fire gun mounted on a heavy carriage. The mitrailleuse used in the French army in 1870-71 had 25 barrels that fired in succession by means of a special mechanism. It could fire up to 175 shots a minute with carbine cartridges. However, the experience of the Franco-Prussian War showed the mitrailleuse to be unsuited to battlefield conditions due to construction inadequacies.—12, 35
[29] Paul and Laura Lafargue lived in a suburb of Paris known as Levallois-Perret, on place de la Reine-Hortense, in the immediate vicinity of military fortifications.—14, 35
[31] On 21 July 1870, during the vote on war credits in the North German Reichstag, Bebel and Liebknecht abstained, declaring that to vote for credits would signify giving a vote of confidence in the Prussian Government, which was waging a dynastic war; to vote against the credits, on the other hand, might be regarded as an approval of Bonaparte's treacherous policy. On 26 July 1870, Marx read their declaration in the General Council of the International.which unreservedly approved their action. The declaration was translated into English by Marx and published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper on 6 August 1870 in the report on the General Council meeting.—16, 51
[32] Engels' forecast proved correct. On 6 August 1870 one of the major battles of the early period of the war took place at Forbach (in Lorraine, not far from Saarbrücken), in which the Prussian troops defeated the French 2nd Corps under General Frossard. In historical literature this battle is also called the Battle of Spicheren. Engels refers to it as such in several of his letters.—18,
[4 5] This letter by Engels has not been found.—29, 43, 125, 156, 159, 185, 277, 305,
[46] Bas (Lower) Empire is the name sometimes given to the Byzantine Empire and also to the late Roman Empire. In a more general sense, the name is applied to any state going through a period of decline and disintegration. Here the Second Empire in France is meant.—30, 39, 41
[50] This refers to the French Branch in London, founded in the autumn of 1865. Besides proletarian members (Eugène Dupont, Hermann Jung, Paul Lafargue and others), the Branch also included petty-bourgeois refugees (Victor Le Lubez and later Félix Pyat). In 1868, after the General Council had adopted a resolution proposed by Marx (7 July 1868) condemning Pyat's provocative calls for terrorist acts against Napoleon III (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 7), a split occurred in the Branch, and its proletarian members resigned. But Pyat's group, having lost virtually all ties with the International, continued to call itself the French Branch in London. It also repeatedly gave support to anti-proletarian elements opposing Marx's line in the General Council. On 10 May 1870 the General Council officially dissociated itself from this group (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 131).—33, 64, 141, 342
[5 3] Marx and his family were on vacation in Ramsgate from 9 to 31 August 1870.—38, 56, 60, 64, 82, 555, 557
[54] Boustrapa—a nickname of Louis Bonaparte, composed of the first syllables of the names of cities where he staged putsches: Boulogne (6 August 1840), Strasbourg (30 October 1836) and Paris (coup d'état of 2 December 1851, which led to the establishment of a Bonapartist dictatorship in France).—38, 51
[5 5] The North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund)—a federative state formed in 1867 under the domination of Prussia, after her victory in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. It replaced the defunct German Confederation. The North German Confederation included 19 German states and three free cities, which were formally recognised as autonomous. Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt joined it in 1870. The establishment of the North German Confederation was a major step towards German national unity. The Confederation ceased to exist in January 1871, when the German Empire was formed.—38, 91
[56] The Peace Society—a pacifist organisation founded by the Quakers in London in 1816. The Society, which was actively supported by the Free Traders, donated £20 for the dissemination of the 'First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War'. Johann Philipp Becker used this money in Switzerland to have 30,000 copies of the Address printed in German and French. At a meeting of the General Council on 2 August 1870, John Weston, who acted as chairman, announced that John Stuart Mill had commended the Address.—40, 51, 77, 82, 100, 556
[61] A reference to the letters written by the members of the Brunswick Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party and to other documents which Marx was receiving from Germany in connection with the disagreements that had arisen between the Brunswick Committee and the editorial board of Der Volksstaat, the central organ of the Party, over the attitude to the Franco-Prussian War and the tactics to be pursued by the working class. At the beginning of the war the editorial board of Der Volksstaat, taking an internationalist position on the whole, rather ignored the task of national unification. Some members of the Brunswick Committee, on the other hand, underestimated the expansionist tendencies of the Prussian ruling circles, which had become obvious even in the initial stages of the war when it was largely defensive on the German side. When disagreements sharpened, the members of the Committee requested Marx to give his opinion on the subject. Marx and Engels elaborated the tactical line of the German proletariat and the Social-Democratic Workers' Party and expounded it in their 'Letter to the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party' (see present edition, Vol. 22).—43, 45
[64] This letter was published in English for the first time, in part, in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934] and in full in: Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.—
[66] This refers to the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 and the formation of the North German Confederation (see Note 55).—47, 57
[76] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Writings on the Paris Commune, Monthly Review Press, New York-London, 1971.—52, 76
[81] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx, Engels, On Literature and Art, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976.—54, 58, 75, 538
[8 8] Marx is referring to the groundless assertion made by August Vogt, a member of German Section No. 1, that Victor Schily, who fought in the 1848-49 revolution in Germany and belonged to the International, was a spy.—57, 60,
[86] In his letters Sorge informed Marx that Robert William Hume, the General Council's correspondent in the USA, used his powers for self-advertisement. In the 'membership cards' of the International, which he issued without the knowledge of the General Council, Hume distorted the aims and tasks of the International Working Men's Association. Marx informed the General Council about Sorge's letter on 6 September 1870. Eccarius, the Corresponding Secretary for the United States, was instructed to demand from Hume that he abide strictly by the Rules of the International Working Men's Association.—57, 60
[89] In August 1870 Cincinnati was the scene of the Fifth Congress of the National Labor Union, which embraced a number of trade union organisations and workers' societies in the USA. The Congress adopted a resolution expressing adherence to the principles of the International Working Men's Association and the Union's intention to join. Sigfrid Meyer was elected delegate of the General Association of German Workers which, till the autumn of 1870, was part of the National Labor Union (it went under the name of Labor Union No. 5 of New York) and, at the same time, from December 1869, had been a section of the International (Section No. 1). Meyer was not able to attend the Congress, and the General Association of German Workers was represented by Friedrich Adolph Sorge.—57, 60
[101] On 5 September 1870 the Paris Federal Council sent a letter to Marx and Eccarius, signed by Henrik Bachruch, with a request that they issue a proclamation to the German people as soon as possible. Enclosed with the letter was the proclamation, 'Au peuple allemand, à la démocratie socialiste de la nation allemande', written on behalf of the French workers' societies and the French sections of the International Working Men's Association. It was published as a leaflet on 4 and 5 September 1870 and later in Der Volksstaat — 6b, 66, 70, 79
[107] Marx is referring to the Manifesto issued on 5 September 1870 by the Brunswick Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Manifest des Ausschusses der sozial-demokratischen Arbeiterpartei. An alle deutschen Arbeiter!). The Manifesto proclaimed the German working class's loyalty to the cause of internationalism and called on German workers to organise mass protest meetings against the Prussian government's plans for annexations. Excerpts from the letter which Marx and Engels wrote to the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party (see present edition, Vol. 22, pp. 260-62) were included in the Manifesto with a note that they had been written by 'one of our oldest and most meritorious comrades in London'.—69, 71, 79, 82
[115] On 9 September 1870 Wilhelm Bracke, Leonhard von Bonhorst, Spier, Kühn, Gralle, and Ehlers, members of the Brunswick Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party, as well as Sievers, a printer, were arrested for publishing the Manifesto on the war on 5 September (see Note 107). In November 1871 these members of the Brunswick Committee were brought to trial (see Note 335).—75, 77, 79, 82, 85, 96, 196
[116] n 6 Demagogues in Germany were the participants in the students' opposition movement after the liberation of the country from Napoleonic rule. After the 1830 Revolution in France the opposition movement of the so-called demagogues became more intense in Germany and gave rise to renewed police repression and arrests and increased emigration.—77, 85, 228, 360