Karl Marx

The Berlin Conspiracy -

The London Police -

Mazzini -

Radetzky

From the English.

[“New-York Daily Tribune,” No. 3748, April 21, 1853]

London, Friday, April 8, 1853

At the time I wrote my last article on the great conspiracy discovered by Herr Stieber, I could not suspect that my views on this affair would be confirmed more or less by two conservative Berlin newspapers. The *Preußisches Wochenblatt*, the organ of the conservative fraction under the leadership of Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, was seized on 2 April, because it had recommended to its readers “not to believe too hastily the fairy tales of the police about the latest arrests.” But of far greater significance is an article in the *Zeit*, the semi-official paper of the group of the Prussian government under the leadership of Herr von Manteuffel. The *Zeit* is forced to make the following confession:

“No one who is not smitten with blindness can conceal from himself that the manifold insoluble complications existing in the general situation of European affairs must, sooner or later, bring about a violent rupture, which even the undoubtedly serious will of the great powers of Europe may succeed in delaying, but by all human judgment cannot prevent in the long run…

It is our duty to no longer keep silent that a discontent is spreading in ever wider circles which appears to us all the more alarming and fateful, the less it expresses itself in definite utterances, because it withdraws that much deeper into the interior of hearts… It is, to put it roundly and plainly, called forth by the endeavor, emerging in the most recent times with incredible recklessness, to bring about a ‘counter-revolution’ in Prussia…”

The *Zeit* only errs in its conclusion. The Prussian counter-revolution is not now being begun, it is being finished. It is no new phenomenon, but began on 20 March 1848 and has been constantly advancing since that day. At this very moment the Prussian government is hatching two very dangerous bills, the one restricts the freedom of partitioning landed property, the second subjects public education to the Church. They could not have chosen more suitable measures to alienate the peasantry of Rhenish Prussia and the middle classes in the whole monarchy. As a curious incidental circumstance I might also mention the forced dissolution of the Berlin *Gesundheitspflegeverein* (an association for the mutual support of the sick), as a consequence of the “great discovery.” This society consisted of almost 10,000 members, all belonging to the working classes. Apparently the government is convinced that the present constitution of the Prussian state is incompatible with “health care.”

The London press, not having suspected the machinations of the London police until now, is astonished at the declarations of the Vienna *Presse* and of the *Emancipation*, the leading reactionary paper of Belgium, that the London police have compiled a list of all political refugees living in London, with many details about their private relations and personal conduct.

“‘Once such a system with regard to foreigners has been tolerated,’ the *Morning Advertiser* fumes, ‘it will be applied whenever the government or any of its members should deem it desirable to become acquainted with the details of the private life of our fellow-countrymen… Is it not deplorable when one must suppose that the London police have been called upon to play the infamous role assigned to their colleagues on the European continent?’”

In addition to these declarations in Belgian and other papers, the London press was informed by telegraphic dispatch from Vienna the other day,

“that the refugee question is solved: the British government has promised to keep the refugees under strict surveillance and to make them feel the full sharpness of the law if proofs should be forthcoming that they have taken part in ‘revolutionary intrigues.’”

“‘Never before,’ remarks the *Morning Advertiser*, ‘did England find itself in such a humiliating situation as now, when it has thrown itself at the feet of Austria. No humiliation could equal this one. It was reserved for the Coalition Cabinet.’”

I learn from a very trustworthy source that the crown lawyers will bring an indictment against Mazzini as soon as his stay in London is established. On the other hand, I hear that questions will be addressed to the ministers in the House of Commons concerning their scandalous transactions with Austria and their intentions regarding the refugee question in general.

In a previous article I set forth how glad Radetzky was to have obtained, through the Milan insurrection, a pretext “to obtain money by prevaricating facts.” This view of the affair has in the meantime been confirmed by an act that cannot be misunderstood. In a recently issued proclamation, Radetzky has declared null and void all loans or mortgages taken out since 1847 on the confiscated properties of the Lombard emigrants. This confiscation can be justified by nothing other than the *horror vacui* <fear of emptiness> of the Austrian treasury. The sentimental bourgeoisie has everywhere sacrificed the revolution to its god – called property. Now counter-revolution denies this god.

A cable dispatch of today brings the news that Prince Menschikoff has concluded a convention with the Porte, according to which the Russian troops have received orders to withdraw from the Turkish frontiers, and that the Eastern question has once more been settled.

Karl Marx