KARL MARX
THE CRISIS IN ENGLAND
Of course, the most  interesting
feature of the news  from Europe  by  the Atlantic™ must  be
the death of the Czar107 and the influence of that event on
the pending complications. But  important as may be the intelligence on  this subject, or on  other continental affairs, in
its interest for the thoughtful observer it can hardly surpass
the gradual indications and developments of that momentous
political crisis in which, without  any will of their own,  the
British nation are now  involved at home. The last attempt
to maintain that antiquated compromise  called the British
Constitution — a compromise  between the class that rule officially and the class that rule non-officially— has signally
failed. The coalition ministry, the most  constitutional of all,
has not  only  broken  down  in England but  the constitution
itself has broken  down  in detail at every point  where it has
been tested by  the war. Forty  thousand British soldiers have
died on  the shores of the Black Sea, victims to the British
Constitution. Officers, Staff, Commissariat, Medical Department, Transport Service, Admiralty, Horse  Guards, Ordnance, Army  and Navy,  all and every one have broken
down,  have ruined themselves in the estimation of the world;
but  all and every one have failed with the satisfaction of
knowing  that they had but  done their duty in the eyes of the
British Constitution. The London  Times spoke  more  truly
than it knew,  when  it said, with respect to this universal

failure, that it was the British Constitution  itself which was
on  its trial!
It has been tried, and found guilty. This British Con stitution, what is it but  a superannuated compromise,  by
which the general governing  power  is abandoned to some
sections of the middle class, on  condition that the whole of
the real Government,  the Executive in all its details, even
to the executive department of the legislative power — or
that is, the actual law-making in the two  Houses  of Parliament — is secured to the landed aristocracy? This aristocracy
which, subject to general principles laid down  by  the middle
class, rules supreme  in the Cabinet, the Parliament, the
Administration, the Army  and the Navy — this very impor tant half of the British Constitution  has now  been obliged
to sign its own  death-warrant. It has been compelled to
confess its incapacity any longer to govern  England. Ministry
after Ministry  is formed, only  to dissolve itself after a few
weeks’ reign. The crisis is permanent; the Government  is but
provisional. All political action is suspended; nobody  pro fesses to do more  than to keep the political machine greased
well enough  to prevent it from stopping. That pride of the
constitutional Englishman, the House  of Commons  itself, is
brought  to a dead stand. It knows  itself no  longer, since it is
split up  in numberless  fractions, attempting all the arithmetical combinations and variations, of which a given number
of units is capable. It can no  longer recognise itself in the
various cabinets, which it makes in its own  image, for no
other purpose  than to unmake them again. The bankruptcy
is complete.
And  not  only  has the war had to be carried on  in the
midst of this national helplessness, which, breaking out  like a
pestilence in the Crimea, has gradually seized all the branches
of the body  politic, but  there is an opponent  to contend
with far more  dangerous than Russia— an opponent  more
than a match for all the Gladstones, Cardwells, Russells and
Palmerstons of past, present and future cabinets put  together.
That opponent  is the commercial and industrial crisis which,
since September last, has set in with a severity, a universality, and a violence, not  to be mistaken. Its stern, iron hand
at once shut up  the mouths  of those shallow Free-Traders

who  for years had gone  on  preaching, that since the repeal
of the Corn  Laws glutted markets were impossible. There
the glut is, with all its consequences, and in its most  Acute
form; and in view  of it nobody  is more  eager to accuse the
improvidence of manufacturers, in not  reducing production,
than those very economists, who  told them only  a few months
before that they never could produce too  much. We  long
since called attention to the existence of this disease in a
chronic form. It has been aggravated, of course, by  the late
difficulties in America, and the crisis that depressed our
trade. India and China, glutted though  they were, continued
to be used as outlets— as also California and Australia.
When  the English manufacturers could no  longer sell their
goods  at home,  or  would  not  do so  rather than depress prices,
they resorted to the absurd expedient of consigning them
abroad, especially to India, China, Australia and California.
This expedient enabled trade to go  on  for a while with less
embarrassment than if the goods  had been thrown  at once
upon  the home  market; but  when  they arrived at their destinations they produced embarrassment at once, and about the
end of September last the effect began to be felt in England.
Then the crisis exchanged its chronic form for an acute
one. The first houses  that felt it were the calico printers; a
number  of them, including very old established houses  in
Manchester and that vicinity, broke down. Then came the
turn  of the shipowners  and the Australian and Californian
merchants; next came the China traders, and finally the
Indian houses. All of them have had their turn; most  of them
losing severely, while many had to suspend; and for none
of them has the danger passed away. On  the contrary it is
still increasing. The silk manufacturers were equally affected; their trade has been reduced to almost nothing,  and the
localities where it is carried on  have suffered, and still suffer,
the greatest distress. Then came the turn  of the cottonspinners and manufacturers. Some  of them had already succumbed at our  last advices, and a great many  more  must  do
so. The spinners of fine yarns, as we  also learn, had begun  to
work  only  four days a week, and the coarse spinners would
shortly have to do the same. But  how  many of them will
be able to stand this for any length of time?

A  few months  more  and the crisis will be at a height which
it has not  reached in England since 1846,  perhaps not  since
1842. When  its effects begin to be fully felt among  the work ing classes, then will that political movement  begin again,
which has been dormant for six years. Then will the working
men  of England rise anew, menacing the middle classes at:
the very time that the middle classes are finally driving the
aristocracy from power. Then will the mask be torn  off
which has hitherto hid the real political features of Great:
Britain. Then will the two  real contending parties in that
country  stand face to face— the middle class and the work ing classes, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat— and Eng land will at last be compelled to share in the general social
evolutions of European society. When  England entered into-
the French Alliance she finally abandoned that isolated
character which her insular position had created for her, but
which the commerce of the world, and the increasing facilities for intercourse, had long  since undermined. Henceforth
she can hardly help undergoing  the great internal movements
of the other European nations.
It is also a striking fact that the last moments  of the British
Constitution  are as prolific in evidences of a corrupt social
state as the last moments  of Louis  Philippe’s monarchy. We
have before referred to the Parliamentary and Government:
scandals, to the Stonor,  the Sadleir, the Lawley scandals^
but,  to crown  all, came the Handcock and De Burgh  revelations, with Lord Clanricarde, a peer of the realm, as a principal though  indirect party to a most  revolting deed. No wonder  that this should seem to complete the parallel, and
that people, on  reading the damning details, should involuntarily exclaim “The Due  de Praslin! The Due  de Praslin!” '
England has arrived at her 1847; who  knows  when  and what
will be her 1848?
on  March 2, 1855
Published as a leading article Printed according
in the New-York Daily Tribune to  the newspaper text
No.  4346, March 24, 1855