"Neue Rheinische Zeitung" — The "Neue Berliner Zeitung" on the Chartists

The "Neue Berliner Zeitung" on the Chartists

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 24 of 24 June 1848]

Cologne
, 23 June. The "
Neue Berliner
Zeitung
" in its No. 1 reports to us all sorts of strange things from England. It
is nice to be original; the "Neue Berliner Zeitung" has at least the
merit of presenting English conditions in a brand-new way.
First, it says:

"O'Connor, who in fact seems to be a man without spirit and character,
is here entirely without esteem."

We will not decide whether O'Connor possesses as much spirit and character as the "Neue
Berliner Zeitung". The scion of ancient Irish kings, the leader of the
British proletariat, may lag behind the educated
Berlin lady in these qualities; but as regards esteem, O educated Berlin lady, you are
indeed right: O'Connor, like all revolutionaries, is in very bad odour;
he has never known how to win the respect of all the pious as you have already won it through
your first number. The Berlin lady further says:

"O'Connell said he" (meaning O'Connor) "had energy, to be sure, but no
logic."

This is again quite splendid. The late Dan <Daniel O'Connell> was an
honourable man; the logic of his energy consisted in the fact that he drew an annual income
of 30,000 pounds sterling from the pockets of his poor countrymen; the logic of the
O'Connor agitation brought the notorious Chartist only the sale of his
entire goods.

"Mr Jones, the second leader of the Chartists of the extreme faction,
for whom the courts are now searching and who is nowhere to be found, cannot even put up
bail for himself of 1,000 pounds sterling."

This is the third piece of news of the extremely educated
Berlin lady; she says in these three lines three extreme absurdities. For the first,
there can be no talk of bail as long as the courts are still searching for someone.
For the second, Mr Ernest Jones has already been in Newgate
<prison in London> for a fortnight, and the educated Berlin lady was probably only invited to tea with some
other extremely educated and well-informed female colleague, when quite recently the
entire English bourgeois press gave vent to its brutal joy over the arrest of Jones.
Third, finally, Mr Jones has indeed found someone who was gladly willing to pay 1,000 pounds
sterling for him, namely the spiritless and characterless O'Connor
himself, who, however, was rejected by the courts, since as a member of parliament
he may not put up bail.

The Berlin lady concludes by saying that in the smaller
towns of the country she frequently has the Chartists brawling among themselves. Dear
Berlin lady, if only you had once read an English newspaper! You would
have found that the Chartists have always taken much more pleasure in brawling with the
police than with each other.

We commend the spirited and characterful "Neue Berliner Zeitung" to the particular
attention of our readers.