"Neue Rheinische Zeitung" — On the Proclamation of the Brandenburg Ministry—

On the Proclamation of the Ministry of Brandenburg-Manteuffel Concerning the Refusal of Taxes

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 149 of November 22, 1848]

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Cologne
, 21 November. The Ministry of Brandenburg-Manteuffel has sent orders to all royal governments to collect the taxes by forcible measures.

The Ministry of Brandenburg-Manteuffel, which stands on unlawful ground, recommends coercive means against those who refuse and leniency towards those who are unable to pay.

It thus sets up two categories of non-payers: those who do not pay in order to comply with the will of the National Assembly, and those who do not pay because they cannot pay. The intention of the Ministry is only too clear. It wants to divide the democrats; it wants to induce the peasants and workers to count themselves among the non-payers from inability, in order to sever them from the non-payers from legality and thereby deprive the latter of the former’s assistance. But this plan will fail; the people perceive that it is collectively responsible for the refusal of taxes, just as it was formerly collectively responsible for their collection.

The struggle will be decided between the power that pays and the power that is paid.