Karl Marx

The Pfuel Ministry

* Cologne, October 13. When the Camphausen ministry fell, we
No. 116, October 14, 1848
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
said:
“The Camphausen ministry had thrown its liberal-bourgeois garment over
the counter-revolution. The counter-revolution feels itself strong
enough to cast off the irksome mask. Some untenable ministry of the
Left Centre (Hansemann) may possibly follow the ministry of March 30
for a few days. Its real successor is the ministry of the Prince of
Prussia.” (Neue Rh. Ztg. No. 23 of June 23.)
And indeed the Pfuel ministry (of Neufchatel) followed the
Hansemann ministry.
The Pfuel ministry tosses about constitutional phrases in the way the
Frankfurt central authority tosses about “German unity”. If we compare the
corpus delicti, the real body of this ministry, with its echo, its constitutional
declarations, pacifications, mediations, agreements in the Berlin Assembly,
we can apply only one word to it, Falstaff’s word:
“Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!”
The Pfuel ministry can only be followed by a ministry of the revolution.