KARL MARX
THE OPINION OF THE NEWSPAPERS
AND THE OPINION OF THE PEOPLE
London,  December 25, 1861
Continental politicians, who
imagine that in the London  press they possess  a thermometer
for determining the temper of the English people, are
inevitably drawing false conclusions at the present time.
With  the first news  of the Trent Affair English national
pride flared up  and the call for war with the United States
resounded from almost all sections of society. The London
press, on  the other hand, affected moderation and even the
Times doubted whether a casus belli existed at all. Whence
this phenomenon?  Palmerston was uncertain whether the
Crown  lawyers were in a position  to dig up  some  legal pretext for war. It appears that a week and a half before the
arrival of the La Plata at Southampton,  agents of the South ern Confederacy had addressed themselves from Liverpool
to the English Cabinet, reported the intention of American
cruisers to put  out  from English ports  and intercept Messrs.
Mason,  Slidell, etc., on  the high seas, and demanded the intervention of the British Government.  In accordance with
the opinion  of its Crown  lawyers, the latter refused the request. Hence, in the beginning,  the peaceful and moderate
tone of the London  press in contrast to the bellicose impatience of the people. As  soon,  however,  as the Crown
lawyers— the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General,
both  themselves members  of the Cabinet— had contrived a
technical pretext for a quarrel with the United States, the

respective attitudes of the people and the press turned into
their opposites. The war fever increased in the press in the
same measure as it abated among  the people. At  the present
moment  a war with America is as unpopular  with all sections
of the English people, the friends of cotton and the country
squires excepted, as the clamour for war in the press is overwhelming.
But  now,  consider the London  press! At  its head stands
the Times, whose  senior editor, Bob Lowe, was formerly a
demagogue in Australia, where he agitated for separation
from England. He  is a subordinate member  of the Cabinet,
a kind of minister for education, and a mere creature of
Palmerston. Punch is the court jester of the Times and transforms its sesquipedalia verba'' into primitive jokes and flat
caricatures. A  senior editor of Punch was given a post  in the
Board of Health by  Palmerston at an annual salary of a
thousand pound  sterling.
The Morning Post is in part Palmerston’s private property.
Another  part of this singular institution is sold to the French
Embassy. The rest belongs  to high society and supplies the
most  exact reports for court toadies and ladies’ tailors.
Among  the English people the Morning Post is accordingly
notorious  as the Jenkins of the Press.
The Morning Advertiser is the joint property  of the
“licensed victuallers” , i.e., of the public-houses, which,
besides beer, may also sell spirits. It is furthermore the organ
of the English Pietists and ditto of the sporting characters,
i.e., of the people who  make a business  of horse-racing, betting, boxing  and the like. The editor of this sheet, Mr. Grant,
previously employed as a stenographer by  the newspapers
and a quite uneducated man as far as literature is concerned,
has had the honour  to get invited to Palmerston’s private
soirees. Since then he has been enthusiastic for the “truly
English minister” 166  whom,  on  the outbreak of the Russian
war, he had denounced as a “Russian agent” . It must  be
added that the pious  patrons of this liquor journal stand
under the high command of the Earl of Shaftesbury and
that the latter is Palmerston’s son-in-law. Shaftesbury is the
*  Words  a foot and a half long.— Ed.

pope  of the low  church men,  who  graft the Sanctus Spiritus
on  to the profane spirits of the honest Advertiser.
The Morning Chronicle! Quantum mutatus ab illo'A For
well-nigh half a century the great organ of the Whig  party
and the not  unfortunate rival of the Times, its star paled
after the Whig  war.107 It went  through  metamorphoses  of all
sorts, turned into a penny paper  and sought  to live on
“sensations” , as, for example, by  taking the part of the
poisoner  Palmer. It subsequently  sold itself to the French
Embassy, which, however,  soon  regretted throwing  away its
money. It then switched to anti-Bonapartism, but  with no
better success. Finally, it found its long-sought  buyer  in
Messrs. Yancey and Mann — the London  agents of the
Southern  Confederacy.
The Daily Telegraph is the private property  of a certain
Levy. His  sheet is branded by  the English press itself as
Palmerstoris mob  paper. Besides this function it conducts a
chronique scandaleuse. It is characteristic of this Telegraph
that, on  the arrival of the news  about the Trent, it declared
on  orders from above that war was impossible. The dignity
and moderation dictated to it seemed so  strange to it itself
that since then it has published half a dozen articles about
these qualities it displayed on  that occasion. As  soon,  how ever, as the order for a volte-face reached it, the Telegraph
sought  to compensate itself for the constraint that had been
put  upon  it by  outyelling all its comrades in the clamour
for war.
The Globe is the ministerial evening paper which receives
official subsidies from all Whig  ministries.
The Tory  papers Morning Herald and Evening Standard,
both  belonging  to the same outfit, are governed by  a double
motive: on  the one hand, hereditary hatred for “the revolted English colonies” ; on  the other hand, a chronic ebb  in
their finances. They know  that a war with America must
shatter the present coalition cabinet and pave the way for
a Tory  cabinet. With  the Tory  cabinet official subsidies for
the Herald and the Standard would  return. And  so  we  see
that hungry  wolves  cannot howl  louder for prey than these
How  changed from what it was!— Ed.

Tory  papers do for an American war with its ensuing  shower
of gold.
Of the London  daily press, the Daily News and the Morning Star are the only  papers left that are worth  mentioning;
both  oppose  the trumpeters of war. The Daily News is
restricted in its movements  by  a connection with Lord John
Russell; the influence of the Morning Star (the organ of
Bright and Cobden) is diminished by  its character as a
“peace-at-any-price” paper.
Most  of the London  weeklies are mere echoes of the daily
press, hence overwhelmingly  warlike. The Observer is in the
ministry ’s pay. The Saturday Review is in quest of esprit and
believes it has attained it by  affecting a cynical superiority to
“humanitarian” prejudices. To  show  “esprit”, the corrupt
lawyers, parsons and schoolmasters that write for this sheet
have scoffingly approved of the slave-holders ever since the
outbreak of the American Civil War. Naturally, they subse quently blew  the war trumpet  together with the Dimes. They
are already drawing up  plans for a campaign against the
United States which display an ignorance that is atrocious.
The Spectator, the Examiner and particularly Macmillan s
Magazine169 must  be mentioned as more  or less respectable
exceptions.
One  sees that on  the whole the London  press— except for
the cotton organs the provincial papers form a commend able contrast— represents nothing  but  Palmerston, over and
over again. Palmerston wants war; the English people don’t.
The events of the immediate future will show  who  will win
in this duel, Palmerston or the people. In any case, he is
playing a more  dangerous game than Louis  Bonaparte did
at the beginning  of 1859.170
on  December 25, 1861
Published in Die Presse No.  359, Translated from the German
December 31, 1861