KARL MARX
THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION
London, March 2. While the
British Constitution  was foundering in detail on  every point
on  which the war had put  it to the test, the coalition cabinet
at home,  the most  constitutional of all the cabinets English
history has produced, fell apart. Forty  thousand British
soldiers died on  the shores of the Black Sea, victims of the
British Constitution! Officers, General Staff, commissariat,
the medical department, the transport services, the Admiralty, the Horse  Guards, the ordnance office, the army and the
navy— all collapsed and discredited themselves in the esteem
of the world; but  all had the satisfaction of knowing  that
they had done their duty in the eyes of the British Constitu tion! The Limes came nearer the truth than it suspected,
when  with reference to this general bankruptcy it declared:
“It is the British Constitution  itself that is on  trial.” It has
faced trial and has been found guilty.
But  what is the British Constitution?  Does  its essence lie
in a representative system  and a limitation of the power  of
the executive? These features distinguish it neither from the
Constitution  of the United States of North  America nor  from
the constitutions of the numerous  British joint-stock com panies which know  “their business ” . The British Constitution
is, in fact, merely an out-of-date, superannuated, obsolete
compromise  between the bourgeoisie, who  are not officially
but  actually riding in all decisive spheres of bourgeois  society,

and the landed aristocracy, who  are governing officially.
Originally, after the “glorious ” revolution of 1688, only
a section of the bourgeoisie, the financial aristocracy, was
included in the compromise. The Reform  Bill of 1831 admitted another section, the millocracy, as the English call them,
that is, the high dignitaries of the industrial bourgeoisie. The
history of legislation since 1831 is the history of concessions
made to the industrial bourgeoisie, ranging from the Poor
Law to the repeal of the Corn  Laws, and from the repeal
of the Corn  Laws to the death-duties on  real estate.
If the bourgeoisie— even only  the top  layer of the middle
classes— has been generally recognised as the ruling class
in political respects, this has been done only  on  the condition that the entire administration in all details, even the
executive functions of legislative power,  that is, the actual
legislation in both  Houses  of Parliament, should remain in
the hands of the landed aristocracy. In the 1830s the bour geoisie preferred the renewal of the compromise  with the
landed aristocracy to a compromise  with the mass of the
English people. The aristocracy, subjected to certain principles laid down  by  the bourgeoisie, now  ruled exclusively
in the Cabinet, in Parliament, in the Administration, in the
Army  and the Navy; this one half, and relatively the most
important half, of the British nation is now  compelled to sign
its own  death sentence, and to admit in the eyes of the whole
world that it no  longer has the ability to rule England. We
only  need to consider the attempts to galvanise its corpse.
Cabinet upon  cabinet is being formed only  to dissolve itself
after a few weeks in office. The crisis is permanent, the
government  only  provisional. All political activity is sus pended, and everyone admits that he is only  thinking of
how  to lubricate the political machine sufficiently to prevent
it from coming  to a complete halt. The House  of Commons
no  longer recognises itself in the cabinets created in its own
image.
In the midst of this general helplessness not  only  must
the war be waged, but  an opponent  more  dangerous than
Tsar Nicholas himself must  be fought. This opponent  is the
trade and industrial crisis, which since last September has
been growing  more  intense and general every day. Its iron

hand has immediately closed the mouth  of those superficial
Free Trade apostles, who  had been preaching for years that
after the repeal of the Corn  Laws glutted markets and
social crises had been banned for ever to the realm of the
past. The glutted markets are here, and now  no  one shouts
more  loudly about the lack of prudence which deterred the
factory owners  from limiting production than these same
economists who  only  five months  ago were preaching with
dogmatic infallibility that too  much  could never be produced.
The sickness expressed itself in chronic form already at
the time of the strike in Preston.105 Shortly after, the swamp ing of the American market brought  an outbreak of the crisis
in the United States. India and China, although oversupplied
like California and Australia, continued to be outlet channels for over-production. Since the English factory owners
could no  longer sell their goods  on  the home  market without
reducing the prices, they resorted to the dangerous method
of sending their goods  abroad on  consignment, especially
to India, China, Australia and California. This expedient
made it possible for trade to go  ahead for a while with less
disturbance than if the goods  had been thrown  upon  the
market all at once. However,  as soon  as the goods  arrived
at their destination, they immediately influenced prices there,
and towards the end of September the effect was felt here
in England.
The crisis then turned from a chronic into an acute one.
The first firms to collapse were the cotton printers, among
them old-established firms in and around Manchester. Next
in turn  were the shipowners  and the Australian and Californian merchants, then the Chinese firms and finally the Indian.
They all took  their turn. Most  of them suffered badly,
many had to suspend their business, and for none  of these
branches of trade is the danger over. On  the contrary, it is
steadily growing.  The silk manufacturers were also stricken;
instantaneously their industry was reduced to almost nothing,
and the areas where their factories operate are afflicted with
the greatest misery. Now  it is the turn  of the cotton spinners
and the manufacturers. Some  have already gone  under and
even more  will have to share their fate. We  saw earlier on
that the fine-yarn mills are still only  working  short time

and soon  the coarse-yarn mills will have to resort to the
same course. A  number  of them are already working  only  a
few days in the week. How  long  can they hold out  in this
manner?
A  few months  more,  and the crisis in the manufacturing
districts will reach the 1842 level, if not  surpass it. But  as
soon  as its effect is generally felt by  the working  classes, the
political movement,  which among  these classes has been
more  or  less drowsing  for the past six years and has retained
only  the cadres for new  agitation, will begin again. The
conflict between the industrial proletariat and the bourgeoisie
will be resumed at the moment  when  the conflict between
the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy reaches its peak. Then
the mask will fall which has up  till now  hidden the true
features of Great Britain’s political face from countries
abroad. Meanwhile, only  those who  are unfamiliar with that
country ’s wealth of human  and material resources will doubt
that it will emerge victorious and rejuvenated from the imminent big crisis.
on  March 2, 1855
Published in Neue Oder-Zeitung Translated from the German
No.  109, March 6, 1855