On the Slogan of the Abolition of the State and the German “Friends of Anarc

Friedrich Engels
On the Slogan of the Abolition of the State

and the German “Friends of Anarchy”

|[1]| “The abolition of the state has meaning only for the communists as the necessary result of the abolition of classes, with which the need for the organised power of one class to keep down another disappears of itself. In bourgeois countries, the abolition of the state signifies the reduction of state power to the scale of North America. Here the class antagonisms are only incompletely developed; class collisions are every time hushed up by the withdrawal of the surplus proletarian population to the West; the intervention of state power, reduced to a minimum in the East, does not exist at all in the West. In feudal countries, the abolition of the state signifies the abolition of feudalism and the establishment of the ordinary bourgeois state. In Germany, concealed behind it is either the cowardly flight from the immediate struggles at hand, the extravagant illusionism that inflates bourgeois liberty into the absolute independence and autonomy of the individual, or, finally, the indifference of the bourgeois towards every form of state, provided that the development of bourgeois interests is not impeded. That this abolition of the state ‘in a higher sense’ is preached in such a silly manner is certainly not the fault of the Berlin Stirners and Fauchers. La plus belle fille de la France ne peut donner que ce qu’elle a.” (N. Rh. Z. Heft IV, p. 58.)

The abolition of the state, anarchy, has in the meantime become a general catchword in Germany. The scattered German pupils of Proudhon, the Berlin “higher” democracy, and even the vanished “noblest spirits of the nation” from the Stuttgart Parliament and the Reichsregentschaft have each in their own way appropriated this wild-looking catchword.

All these fractions agree in maintaining the existing bourgeois society. Along with bourgeois society, they therefore necessarily represent the rule of the bourgeoisie, and in Germany even the conquest of power by the bourgeoisie; they are distinguished from the real representatives of the bourgeoisie only by the outlandish form which is lent to them by the semblance ||[2]| of “going farther”, of “going to the very furthest”. In all practical collisions this semblance vanished; faced with the real anarchy of revolutionary crises, where the masses fought against one another with “brutal force”, these representatives of anarchy each time did their utmost to counter anarchy. The content of this much-vaunted “anarchy” finally amounted to the same thing that is expressed in “more developed” countries by the word “order”. The “friends of anarchy” in Germany stand in full entente cordiale with the “friends of order” in France.

In so far as the friends of anarchy are not dependent on the Frenchmen Proudhon and Girardin, in so far as their outlook is of Germanic origin, they all have a common source: Stirner. The period of dissolution of German philosophy has in general supplied the democratic party in Germany with the greater part of its general phrases. The notions and phrases of the last German men of letters, particularly Feuerbach and Stirner, had already passed, before the February [Revolution], in a fairly dissolute form into common belles-lettres consciousness and newspaper literature, and these in turn formed the main source for the post-March democratic spokesmen. Stirner’s sermon on statelessness in particular fitted admirably to lend Proudhonian anarchy and Girardin’s abolition of the state the German-philosophical “higher consecration”. Stirner’s book: The Ego and His Own has indeed vanished from view, but his mode of thought, especially his critique of the state, reappears in the friends of anarchy. Having already earlier examined the sources of these gentlemen in so far as they were of French origin, we must, in order to test their German sources, descend once more into the depths of antediluvian German philosophy. When one has to concern oneself with German day-to-day polemics, it is always more agreeable to stick to the original inventors of a mode of thought than to the second-hand hucksters.

Noch einmal sattelt mir den Hippogryphen, ihr Musen
Zum Ritt ins alte romantische Land!

|[3]| Before we go into Stirner’s book itself, we must transport ourselves back to the “old romantic land” and to the forgotten time in which this book appeared. The Prussian bourgeoisie, clinging to the government’s financial embarrassments, began to conquer political power for itself, while at the same time, alongside the bourgeois-constitutional movement, the communist movement within the proletariat spread ever wider day by day. The bourgeois elements of society, still in need of proletarian support for the attainment of their own ends, had everywhere to affect a certain socialism; the conservative and feudal party was likewise forced to make promises to the proletariat. Alongside the struggle of the bourgeoisie and peasants against the feudal nobility and bureaucracy, the struggle of the proletarians against the bourgeoisie; in between, a series of intermediate socialist stages that encompassed all kinds of socialism, reactionary, petty-bourgeois, bourgeois socialism; all these struggles and endeavours kept down, their expression muted by the pressure of the ruling power, by censorship, by the prohibition of associations and assemblies — that was the position of the parties at that time when German philosophy was celebrating its last paltry triumphs.

Censorship from the outset imposed on all more or less undesirable elements the most abstract possible mode of expression; the German philosophical tradition, which had just arrived at the complete dissolution of the Hegelian school, furnished this expression. The struggle against religion still continued. The more difficult the political struggle against the existing power became in the press, the more zealously it was pursued in the form of the religious and philosophical struggle. German philosophy, in its most dissolved form, became the common property of the “educated”, and the more it became common property, the more dissolved, disjointed and insipid the philosophers became, and this slovenliness and insipidity in turn gave them all the higher esteem in the eyes of the “educated” public.

The confusion in the heads of the “educated” was hair-raising and increased with every moment. It was a veritable cross-breeding of ideas of German, French, English, ancient, medieval and modern origin. The confusion was all the greater since all ideas were possessed only at second, third and fourth hand and therefore circulated in a form distorted beyond recognition. Not only the thoughts of the French and English liberals and socialists, but also the ideas of Germans, e.g., Hegel’s, shared this fate. The whole literature of that time, and especially, as we shall see, Stirner’s book, provides innumerable proofs of this, and present-day German literature is still suffering severely from the consequences.

Under this confusion, the philosophical shadow-boxing served as a reflection of the real struggles. Every “new turn” in philosophy aroused the general attention of the “educated”, who in Germany include a countless number of idle heads, junior barristers, candidates for teaching posts, failed theologians, breadless physicians, men of letters, etc. For these people, with each such “new turn” a historical stage of development was overcome and done away with for ever. Bourgeois liberalism, for example, as soon as some random philosopher had criticised it at random, was dead, struck out of historical development, and also wiped out for practice. Likewise republicanism, socialism, etc. Just how much these stages of development were “wiped out”, “dissolved”, “done away with” was shown afterwards in the revolution, where they played the leading role and where suddenly there was no more talk of their philosophical annihilators.

The slovenliness in form and content, the arrogant platitude and inflated tediousness, the bottomless triviality and dialectical wretchedness of this latest German philosophy surpasses everything that has ever existed in this line. It is only matched by the incredible credulity of the public, which took all these things at face value, as brand-new, as “never seen before”. The German nation, that “profound” one!

Friedrich Engels: On the Slogan of the Abolition of the State
and the German “Friends of Anarchy”.
Last page of the manuscript

Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels
Address of the Central Authority of the Communist League
of June 1850

The Central Authority to the League.

Brothers:

In our last circular, which the League’s emissary brought to you, we set forth the position of the workers’ party and in particular of the League both at the present moment and in the event of a revolution. The main purpose of this letter is to report on the state of the League.

The defeats of the revolutionary party last summer dissolved the organisation of the League almost completely for a moment. The most active members of the League, involved in the various movements, were dispersed, the connections ceased, the addresses had become unusable, correspondence was thereby and by the danger of letters being opened momentarily impossible. The Central Authority was thus condemned to complete inaction until towards the end of last year.

As the immediate aftermath of the defeats suffered gradually ceased, the need for a strong secret organisation of the revolutionary parties throughout Germany became manifest everywhere. This need, which gave rise to the Central Authority’s decision to send an emissary to Germany and Switzerland, in turn brought into existence the attempt at a new secret connection in Switzerland, as well as the attempt by the Cologne community to reorganise the League on its own initiative in Germany.

In Switzerland, towards the beginning of this year, a number of refugees, more or less known from the various movements, came together to form a connection whose purpose it was to contribute at the opportune moment to the overthrow of the existing governments and to hold men in readiness who were to take over the direction of the movement and even the government itself. This connection had no specific party character; the motley elements united in it did not allow that. The members consisted of people from all fractions of the movement party, from resolute communists and even former members of the League, down to the most timid petty-bourgeois democrats and former members of the Palatinate government. For the Baden-Palatinian office-seekers and other subordinate ambitions, then so numerous in Switzerland, this association was a welcome opportunity to rise.

The instructions which this connection sent to its agents and which

...which were before the Central Authority, were just as little calculated to inspire confidence. The lack of a definite party standpoint, the attempt to bring all existing oppositional elements into a sham connection, is only poorly disguised by a mass of detailed questions on the industrial, agricultural, political and military conditions of the various localities. — The forces of this connection were likewise very insignificant. According to the complete membership list that lies before us, the whole society in Switzerland, at the height of its flourishing, consisted of barely 30 members. It is characteristic that the workers are almost entirely absent from this number. It was from the first an army of nothing but non-commissioned officers and officers without soldiers. Among them are A. Fries and Greiner from the Palatinate, Körner from Elberfeld, Sigel, J. P. Becker, etc.

They sent two agents to Germany. The first, Bruhn from Holstein, a member of the League, succeeded, by false pretences, in persuading some members of the League to join for the time being the new connection, in which they believed they saw the resurrected League. At the same time he reported on the League to the Swiss Central Authority in Zürich, and on the Swiss connection to us. Not content with this double-dealing position, he wrote, while he was still corresponding with us, to the above-mentioned people won over in Frankfurt for Switzerland, direct slanders on the League and commanded them to enter into no connection whatsoever with London. For this reason he was at once expelled from the League. The affair in Frankfurt was settled by the League emissary. In other respects Bruhn’s activity for the Swiss Central Authority was fruitless.

The second agent, student Schurz from Bonn, accomplished nothing because, as he wrote to Zürich, he found all usable forces already in the hands of the League. He then suddenly left Germany and is now loafing around in Brussels and Paris, where he is being watched by the League. The Central Authority could see so much the less a danger for the League in this new connection as a thoroughly reliable member of the League sits on its Central Committee, who has the commission to watch and communicate the measures and plans of these people, insofar as they are directed against the League. In addition, it has sent an emissary to Switzerland to draw the usable forces into the League together with the aforesaid League member and generally to reorganise the League in Switzerland. The information given rests on entirely authentic documents.

Another attempt of a similar kind was made earlier by Struve, Sigel, J. Ph. Becker and others, who were then assembled in Geneva. These people did not shrink from passing off their attempt at a connection outright as the League and misusing the names of members of the League for this purpose. Naturally they deceived no one with this lie. Their attempt was in every respect so fruitless that the few members of this connection that never came into being, who remained in Switzerland, were finally obliged to join the first-mentioned organisation. But the more impotent this clique was, the more it flaunted high-sounding titles, such as “Central Committee of European Democracy”, etc. Here in London, too, Struve, in connection with a few other disillusioned great men, has continued these attempts. Manifestos and summonses to affiliate to the “Central Bureau of the Entire German Emigration” and the “Central Committee of European Democrats” have been sent to all parts of Germany, yet also this time without the slightest success. The alleged connections of this clique with French and other non-German revolutionaries do not exist at all. Their whole activity extends to a few petty intrigues among the German refugees here, which do not directly affect the League and are harmless and easy to watch.

All such attempts have either the same purpose as the League, namely the revolutionary organisation of the workers’ party, in which case they destroy the centralisation and thereby the strength of the party through splintering and are therefore decidedly harmful separate leagues. Or they can only have the purpose of once again misusing the workers’ party for purposes that are alien or directly hostile to it. The workers’ party may under certain circumstances very well make use of other parties and party fractions for its purposes, but it must not subordinate itself to any other party. Those people, however, who in the last movement were in the government and used their position to betray the movement, and to suppress the workers’ party where it sought to act independently, these people must under all circumstances be kept at a distance.

On the situation of the League the following is to be reported:

Address of the Central Authority of the Communist League, June 1850

I. Belgium.

The organisation of the League among the Belgian workers, as it existed in 1846 and 47, naturally ceased since the leading members were arrested in 1848, sentenced to death and reprieved with life imprisonment. In general, the League in Belgium has lost considerably in strength since the February Revolution and since the expulsion of most members of the German Workers’ Society from Brussels. The existing police conditions have not permitted it to recover. Nevertheless a commune has continuously maintained itself in Brussels, which still exists today and is active to the best of its ability.

II. Germany.

The intention of the Central Authority was to present in this circular letter a special report on the situation of the League in Germany. This report, however, cannot be given at the present moment, as the Prussian police are just now investigating a more extended connection within the revolutionary party. This circular letter, which is to get into Germany by a safe route, but which, in the course of its dissemination within Germany, may well fall here or there into the hands of the police, must therefore be so drafted that its contents give them no weapons against the League. The Central Authority therefore confines itself for this time to the following:

The League has its principal seats in Germany in: Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Hamburg, Schwerin, Berlin, Breslau, Liegnitz, Glogau, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Munich, Bamberg, Würzburg, Stuttgart, Baden.

The following have been appointed as directing circles: Hamburg for Schleswig-Holstein; Schwerin for Mecklenburg; Breslau for Silesia; Leipzig for Saxony and Berlin; Nuremberg for Bavaria; Cologne for Rhineland and Westphalia.

The communes in Göttingen, Stuttgart and Brussels remain for the time being in direct connection with the Central Authority until they have succeeded in extending their influence sufficiently to be able to form new directing circles. The League’s situation in Baden will only be determined after the report of the emissary sent there and to Switzerland.

Where, as in Schleswig, Holstein and Mecklenburg, peasants’ and farm labourers’ associations exist, the members of the League have succeeded in gaining a direct influence upon them and in some cases have brought them entirely into its hands. The Saxon, Franconian, Hessian and Nassau workers’ and day-labourers’ associations are also for the most part under the leadership of the League. The most influential members of the Workers’ Brotherhood also belong to the League. The Central Authority draws the attention of all communes and members of the League to the fact that this influence upon the workers’, gymnasts’ and farm labourers’ associations, etc., is of the highest importance and must be won everywhere. It calls upon the directing circles and those communes that correspond directly with it to report specially in their next letters what has been done in this respect.

The emissary to Germany, who received a vote of recognition from the Central Authority for his activity, has everywhere admitted only the most reliable people into the League and left the extension of the League to their greater local knowledge. It will depend on local conditions whether the most resolute revolutionary people can be admitted directly into the League. Where this is not possible, a second class of League members must be formed out of those who are revolutionarily usable and reliable, but who do not yet understand the communist consequences of the present movement. This second class, to whom the connection is to be presented as a merely local or provincial one, must remain continually under the leadership of the actual League members and League authorities. With the aid of this wider connection, the influence, particularly upon the peasants’ associations and gymnastic societies, can very easily be firmly organised. The details of the arrangements are left to the directing circles, whose reports on this matter too the Central Authority awaits as soon as possible.

A commune has petitioned the Central Authority for the immediate convocation of a League Congress, and that in Germany itself. The communes and circles will see for themselves that, under the prevailing circumstances, even provincial congresses of the directing circles are not everywhere advisable, and that a general League Congress is for the present absolutely impossible. The Central Authority will, however, as soon as it is at all permissible, convoke a League Congress at a suitable place. — Rhineland-Prussia and Westphalia were recently visited by an emissary of the directing circle of Cologne. The report on the result of this journey has not yet arrived in London. We call upon all directing circles to have their districts visited by emissaries in the same way as soon as possible and to report on the result with the least possible delay. Finally, we further communicate that in Schleswig-Holstein connections have been established with the army. The more detailed report on the influence that the League can gain here is awaited.

III. Switzerland.

The report of the emissary is still awaited. More precise communications can therefore only be made in the next circular letter.

IV. France.

The connections with the German workers in Besançon and the other places in the Jura will be re-established from Switzerland.

In Paris, the member of the League who hitherto stood at the head of the commune there, Ewerbeck, has declared his resignation from the League, as he considers his literary activity more important. The connection is therefore momentarily interrupted, and its re-establishment must be undertaken with all the more caution, as a number of people who are entirely useless and who earlier stood even in direct enmity against the League have been admitted in Paris.

V. England.

The London circle is the strongest of the whole League. It has distinguished itself especially by the fact that for several years it has borne the expenses of the League, particularly those of the emissaries’ journeys, almost exclusively. It has further strengthened itself in the most recent period by the admission of new elements and leads continuously the German Workers’ Society here, as well as the most resolute fraction of the German refugees present here.

The Central Authority stands, through several members delegated for this purpose, in connection with the most resolutely revolutionary party of the French, English and Hungarians.

Of the French revolutionaries, the strictly proletarian party, whose leader is Blanqui, has, in particular, joined forces with us. The delegates of the Blanquist secret societies are in regular and official communication with the delegates of the League, to whom they have entrusted important preparatory work for the next French revolution.

The leaders of the revolutionary Chartist party are likewise in regular, intimate communication with the delegates of the Central Authority. Their journals are at our disposal. The rupture between this revolutionary independent workers’ party and the fraction led by O’Connor, which inclines more towards reconciliation with the bourgeoisie, has been substantially hastened by the delegates of the League.

In the same way, the Central Authority is in communication with the most advanced party of the Hungarian emigration. This party is important because it contains many outstanding military men who, in the event of a revolution, will place themselves at the disposal of the League.

The Central Authority calls upon the leading circles to disseminate this communication among their members with the utmost speed and to report without delay. It calls upon all members of the League to display the greatest activity precisely now, when the situation is so tense that the outbreak of a new revolution cannot be long in coming.

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Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels

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We believe, Sir, that under these circumstances, we cannot do better than
bring the whole case before the public. We believe that Englishmen are
interested in anything by which the old-established reputation of England,
as the safest asylum for refugees of all parties and of all countries, may be
more or less affected.

We are, Sir, your most obedient servants,

Charles Marx, Editors of the Neue Rheinische
Frede. Engels,             Zeitung, of Cologne.
Aug. Willich, Colonel in the Insurrectionary
Army of Baden.

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Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels
To the Editor of the "Globe"
Middle of June 1850

|To the Editor of the Globe.

Sir,

Allow me to call, through the medium of your paper, the attention of the
public to a fact in which the honour of the British nation is, perhaps, more
or less interested.

You are aware that the different continental governments, after the defeats
of the movement party in 1849, succeeded in driving the numerous political
refugees, more particularly the Germans, the Hungarians, the Italians and
the Poles, from one place of asylum to another, until they found protection
and tranquillity in this country.

There are certain governments on the Continent, whose animosity against
their political opponents seems not to be satisfied with this result. The
Prussian government is of this number.

After having succeeded in concentrating most of the Prussian refugees in
this country the Berlin Cabinet is evidently trying to make them, somehow
or other, depart for America. The same parties who at home, in their own
newspapers (witness the Neue Preussische Zeitung and the Assemblée
nationale) represent the English government as a committee of Jacobins and
of conspirators against the conservatives of all Europe—these same parties,
affect a most suspicious anxiety for the tranquillity of this country, by
denouncing to the British government, the foreign refugees as interfering
with English politics and as being connected with the attempt at assassinating
the King of Prussia.

I have the honour of belonging to those, whom the persecution of the
Prussian government has followed everywhere they went. Editor of the Rhei-
nische Zeitung (of Cologne) in 1842, and of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in
1848 and 1849, both of which papers were directly or indirectly stopped by
the forcible interference of the Prussian government, I have been expelled

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To the Editor of the "Globe"

from France in 1845 and 1849, from Belgium 1848, || upon the direct request
and by the influence of the Prussian Embassy; and during my stay in Prussia,
in 1848 and 49, I had about a dozen political actions brought against me, the
whole of which were, however, abandoned after my having been twice
acquitted by the jury.

That even in this country, I am not lost sight of by the Prussian government,
is proved to me by numerous warnings which I received of late, stating that
the English government upon the ground of similar denunciations, intended
to take steps against me; and by the fact that for several days past some
individuals place themselves at my very door, taking down notes every time
any one comes in or leaves the house. It is further proved by the Neue
Preussische Zeitung, which stated, some time ago, that I was travelling
through Germany and had stayed a fortnight in Berlin, whilst I can prove
by my landlords and other Englishmen that I never for a moment left London
since I arrived here last year. This same ultra-royalist paper, after the
attempt of the madman Sefeloge, brought my pretended journey to Berlin
into connexion with that attempt; and yet this paper ought to know best who,
if anyone, is connected with this affair, inasmuch as Sefeloge is a member
of Section Nr. 2 of the ultra-royalist society the Treubund, and never was
connected with any but staff-officers employed in the Berlin war-office. It
is moreover proved by the presence, here in London, of Prussian agents
provocateurs, who, a fortnight before Sefeloge's attempt, presented them-
selves to me and some of my friends, preaching the necessity of such an
attempt and hinting even at the existence of a conspiracy got up, in Berlin,
for this purpose; and who, after having found it impossible to make their
dupes of us, now frequent Chartist meetings, in order to induce the public
to believe that the foreign refugees take an active part in the English Chartist
movement.

In conclusion allow me to ask you, Sir, and through you the public, whether
it would be desirable that, upon such authority, the British government
should be induced to take steps which might more or less interfere with the
conviction, universally spread, that the British laws afford equal protection
to whoever puts his foot upon British soil?

I am pp

349

Friedrich Engels
Letter from France VI
The abolition of universal suffrage —
The dotation for the President—
Negotiations between Orleanists and Legitimists

The Democratic Review.
July 1850

 Letter from France.

Paris, June 22nd, 1850.

The Electoral "Reform" Law has passed, and the people of Paris have not
moved. Universal Suffrage has been destroyed, without the slightest attempt
at disturbance or demonstration, and the working people of France are again
what they were under Louis Philippe: political Pariahs, without recognised
rights, without votes, without muskets.

It really is a curious fact, that Universal Suffrage in France, won easily
in 1848, has been annihilated far more easily in 1850. Such ups and downs,
however, correspond much with the French character, and occur very often
in French history. In England such a thing would be impossible. Universal
Suffrage, once established there, would be won for ever. No government
would dare to touch it. Only think of the minister who should be foolish
enough to consider seriously re-establishing the Corn Laws. The immense
laughter of the whole nation would hurl him down.

The people of Paris have, undoubtedly, committed a serious mistake, in
not profiting of the occasion for insurrection given by the destruction of
Universal Suffrage. The army was well disposed, the small trading class was
forced to go with the people, and the Mountain, nay, even the party Ca-
vaignac knew that in case of a defeated insurrection they would inevitably
be made to suffer for it, whether they stood with the people or not. Thus,
at least, the moral support of the small trading class and of its parliamentary
organ, the Mountain, was sure this time, as soon as the insurrection had
broken out; and with that the resistance of a large portion of the army would
be broken. But the occasion has been missed, partly from the cowardice of
the parliamentary chiefs and the press, partly from the peculiar state of mind
the people of Paris are in at present.

The working people of the capital are at present in a state of transition.

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Letter from France VII

The different socialist systems which, up to this time, have been discussed
amongst them, no longer suffice to them; and it must be confessed, take all
French systematic Socialism together, and there is not much in it of a very
revolutionary nature. On the other hand the people, so many times deceived
by their chiefs, have such a deep distrust towards all men who ever have
acted as their leaders—not excepting even Barbes or Blanqui—that they
are resolved not to make any movement in order to bring any of these leaders
into office. Thus the whole working class movement is about to take a
different, far more revolutionary aspect. The people, once thinking for
themselves, freed from the old Socialist tradition, will soon find socialist and
revolutionary formulas which shall express their wants and interests far more
clearly than anything invented for them, by authors of systems and by
declaiming leaders. And then, arrived thus at maturity, the people will again
be enabled to avail themselves of whatever talent and courage may be found
among the old leaders, without becoming the tail of any of them. And this
state of the popular mind in Paris accounts for the indifference displayed
by the people, at the destruction of Universal Suffrage. The great struggle
is postponed for the day in which one or both of the two rival powers of the
state, the President or the Assembly, will try to overthrow the Republic.
And this day must soon arrive. You recollect what was boasted in all the
reactionary papers, about the cordial understanding between the President
and the majority. Now, this cordial understanding has just resolved | it-
self into the most deadly struggle between the two rivals. The President
has been promised, as the price for his adhesion to the Electoral Law, an

25 annual addition to his salary of 3,000,000 fr. (£120,000), which additional pay

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was most awfully wanted by the debt-ridden Louis Napoleon, besides being
considered as the preliminary step to the prolongation of his presidency for
ten years. The Electoral Law was hardly passed, when the ministers stepped
in and asked for the three millions a year. But all at once the majority got
frightened. They, who no longer consider the imbecile Louis Napoleon as
a serious pretender, far from being ready to consent to the prolongation of
his presidency, on the contrary want to get rid of him as soon as possible.
They name a select committee to report on the Bill, and that committee
reports against its adoption. Great consternation at the Elysée-National.
Napoleon threatens abdication. A most serious collision between the two
powers of the state is imminent. The ministry, a lot of bankers, a number
of other "friends of order" interpose, with no result. Several "transactions"
are proposed; in vain. At last an amendment is come to, which seems to
satisfy all parties more or less. The majority, not quite sure as to the conse-
quences of a rupture with the President, and having, as yet, not quite con-
cluded the compact which is to unite the Legitimists and Orleanists into one

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Friedrich Engels

party, seems to recoil a little, and to be ready to grant the money in another
shape. The discussion is to come off on Monday; what the result will be no
one can say. However, a serious rupture with Napoleon is, I think, not yet
in the line of policy of the royalist majority.

The compact which is to unite the Orleanists and Legitimists, the younger
and the elder branch of the house of Bourbon, is, at present, more than ever
spoken of. It is a fact that most active negotiations are carried on with regard
to this subject. The journey of Messrs. Thiers, Guizot, and others to the
death-bed of Louis Philippe, at St. Leonards, had no other object than this.
I shall not repeat to you the various versions as to the state of this affair,
and the results obtained by the journey above mentioned. The daily papers
have said more than enough about that. A fact, however, it is, that the
Orleanist and Legitimist parties are in France pretty much agreed as to the
conditions, and that the only difficulty is to have these conditions adopted
by the two rival branches. Henry, Duke of Bordeaux, is to be made king,
and as he has no children, the adoption of the Count of Paris, grandson of
Louis Philippe, and heir to the throne by regular succession, is a matter
almost of course, and offering no difficulties. The tricolour flag, besides, is
to be maintained. The expected death of old Louis Philippe would facilitate
this solution. He seems to have submitted to it, and the Duke of Bordeaux,
too, appears to have accepted the agreement. The Duchess of Orleans,
mother of the Count of Paris, and her brother-in-law, Joinville, are said to
be the only obstacles in the way of a settlement. Louis Napoleon is to be
paid off with ten millions of hard cash.

There is no doubt but this, or a similar settlement, will finally be come to; and as soon as this is done, the direct attack upon the Republic will follow. In the mean time, a preliminary engagement is to be commenced by the councils-general of the departments. They have been just called together before their regular time of meeting, and are expected to call upon the National Assembly to revise the Constitution. The same thing was considered last year, but thought premature by the councils themselves. There is no doubt they will show considerably more pluck this time, particularly after the successful blow at the Suffrage. And then the occasion will come for the people to show that if they abstained from showing their power for a time, they are not willing to be thrust back to the most infamous epoch of the Restoration.

P. S.—I have just read a small pamphlet sold at three sous (halfpence) and given out gratis with the République. This pamphlet contains the most astounding disclosures as to the plots and conspiracies of the royalists, as far back as the spring of 1848. It is by one Borme, a witness examined in the trial of Barbès and Blanqui at Bourges. He confesses himself a paid royalist agent, who at that trial committed gross perjury. He contends that the whole movement of the 15th of May, 1848, originated with the royalists, and many other things of a most curious character. There is something, too, which regards the Times. Borme gives name and address. He lives in Paris. The pamphlet is one which must call forth more disclosures still. I call your most earnest attention to it.