Frederick Engels 


REFORM BANQUET AT LILLE.— 
SPEECH OF M. LEDRU-ROLLIN 


In response to the toast:—“To the labourers,—to their imprescrip- 
tible rights,—to their sacred interests, hitherto unknown.’ 


“Citizens,—Yes, to the labourers! to their imprescriptible rights,—to their sacred 
interests, hitherto unknown. To the unalienable rights of man, proclaimed in 
principle, by two glorious revolutions”; but artfully eluded in their application, and 
successfully re-wrested from the people, and which are now only a glorious, yet bitter 
remembrance! Political rights to the people, it is said, is madness. How entrust them 
with them, in their state of incapacity, of ignorance, of moral depravity? To give the 
people political freedom is a blind and dangerous power; it is revolution—blood 
—anarchy—chaos! Gentlemen, you know the people; you in this industrial city, at 
once so wealthy and so poor, believe you this picture to be true! Oh! doubtless, if we 
cast our eyes over the pages of certain romance writers, to whom the grand side of things 
has appeared trivial, vulgar—who have sought for effect in the humorous, the 
fantastic, the exceptional, the people—is it thus! Taking the normal life of our towns, 
from one point, where criminals escaped from justice, find a refuge, the way of life, 
the dregs of society, they have said, ‘Such are the people!’ Doubtless such would still be 
the people, did we put faith in those mercenary writers, who, to terrify the wealthy, cry 
out against the invasion of the barbarians! Barbarians! they have cast that epithet upon 
the people, as the most outrageous of insults. Ah! if barbarians always signify men full 
of simplicity, of strength, of social and youthful energy, those barbarians can alone 
save our worn-out official world, fast hastening to decay in powerlessness and 
corruption. No; a thousand times no, it is not the people. It is not upon the theatre of 
crime and debauchery, that it must be sought for. To be acquainted with it, we must 
transport ourselves into those manufacturing towns, where the merchant, struggling 
against unrestricted competition which crushes him, between the tyrannical pressure 


* Ledru-Rollin’s speech at the banquet at Lille on November 7, 1847 was translated 
by Engels according to the report in La Réforme, November 10, 1847.— Ed. 


> The reference is evidently to the revolutions of 1789-94 and 1830.— Ed. 


394 Frederick Engels 


of capital and opposition to wages, which eat him up, he is compelled to reduce those 
wages, in order to avoid bankruptcy and dishonour. Ah! believe not that the people, in 
their spirit of justice, always accuse the masters as the cause of that cruel necessity. 
Know they not that our industry fails for want of outlet; that we have seen the greatest 
number of the markets of the world closed against us; and that our commerce has 
perished, where our flag has been trampled under foot? Well; in the midst of those 
vicissitudes, of those fluctuations, of this crisis of wages, what befalls the workman? 
The labour of the father, no longer sufficing to procure bread for the family, the 
daughter prostitutes herself for food; the child must go to aid the formidable 
machine, and exhaust his unevolved strength; and by the side of those beauteous 
fabrics, the product of our industry, the eye wanders over rickety boys, faded girls, 
worn-out men, bent under the pressure of premature labour. And, nevertheless, 
of that physically decayed population—those who have escaped enervation, 
sickness—who have attained their proper height, will go forth to do battle for their 
country—nobly to encounter death beneath her banner. Such are the people of the 
towns, sociable, good, patient in the midst of those daily evils,—doing more, deriving 
from within themselves the light of knowledge, dealt out to them with such a niggardly 
hand, reading, sometimes composing verses upon their sufferings or their prospects, 
publishing journals, which enlighten and prepare those formidable problems, re- 
specting the future fate of mankind! It is those people of the towns whom some writ- 
ers, who only judge by their own flimsy minds, call barbarians!... In this slight and 
rapid sketch, we have only seen the people in their habitual life—their daily struggles; 
but were one of those unforeseen scourges, in which a fearful inundation sweeps off 
everything in its destructive course, a terrible fire, or a severe cholera suddenly to 
arise, who would be foremost in the cause of humanity? who would forget their 
families and their wives, upon their lowly couches? their children, who might die on 
the morrow? who would peril life, without counting the cost; and fly when the service 
was performed, without even leaving their names?—the people! Intelligence or 
devotedness, head or heart, the people are, therefore, worthy to exercise the rights to 
which they lay claim. And who are better aware of it than the citizens, who by the 
superhuman efforts of the people, have conquered the twofold tyranny of the nobility 
and the priesthood. It was to that clergy, to that nobility, as to the States of 1614, thata 
member of the bourgeoisie once said— ‘You, our elder brothers, you, our younger 
brothers—for we are all brothers—forming but one and the same nation.’ And the 
clergy and the nobles attempted to make that courageous member of the third retract 
and their minions to scourge him, regarding a plebeian as of a conquered and inferior 
race.... Not only are the people worthy to represent themselves, but if justice is to 
be rendered, they can only be efficiently represented by themselves. Who, then, in 
a legislative chamber knows sufficiently, at this present moment, their interests, their 
wants to dare to defend them? There are many men, gentlemen, who would unite in 
our principle of Reform; for it is now made evident—but they still dread the advance 
of democracy; yet never has a solemn and decisive movement, in the onward march of 
humanity, been preceded by more significant auguries! Let us pass rapidly in review 
those transcendent men of our own age. Towering above all, is one, whose prophetic 
speech is engraven on every heart. ‘Before fifty years,’ said Napoleon, ‘Europe will be 
Cossack or Republican.’... It shall not be Cossack—and in this patriotic city exists 
the right so to say. If doubt could ever have prevailed, it would assuredly not have been 
in the midst of those whose love of national independence and of the revolution of 1792, 
transformed each citizen into a hero! Republican—but I pause, gentlemen—the laws 
of September! are in force, and in order to be strong, when armed in a good cause, 
we must know how to keep within the law. | shall, therefore, only permit myself to 
choose, as interpreters of my thoughts, a few men, whose very names shed a glory over 


Reform Banquet at Lille— Speech of M. Ledru-Rollin 395 


their country. He, for example, who has sung the high hymn of legitimacy, and who 
has achieved renown, in essaying to restore the ancient ruins of the past. Chateau- 
briand, in his sincerity, has been unable to avoid regarding the approaching future 
of the world, as tending towards democracy.... Beranger, whose patriotic hymns 
will be eternally repeated by the world—hymns, which we, his contemporaries, ought 
to teach to our children as a prayer, whilst a Waterloo remains to be avenged!! 
Beranger believes in the approaching sovereignty of the people. And Lamartine, 
sparkling with poetry, with eloquence, has passed by legitimacy—he has traversed the 
marshes of the plain, in order to approach nearer to us. Though an ardent admirer of 
the Girondists, yet the noble candour of his mind leads him to draw conclusions 
favourable to the Radicals. There is a something, however, which still divides him 
from pure democracy; as for myself, I only behold the steps of giants, each day rapidly 
striding towards us. So much for men of letters, gentlemen, and that unanimous 
testimony rendered by such illustrations in favour of our party, might suffice for its 
hopes. But cast your eyes into the domain of science; behold a man who is at the 
summit of all—of whom the two worlds would deprive us—Arago! But for an 
imperious duty he would have been here in the midst of you. He would, much better 
than I am able, have spoken to you of the rights of the people; he who was the first to 
advocate their cause in another assembly, where to do so required no small amount of 
moral courage. Is not, then, Arago entirely for democracy? And in the arts, who with 
his powerful chisel draws forth, from marble, those men who have best served the 
people? Who confides to the eternity of bronze those grand revolutionary figures, to 
bequeath them to the admiration of future ages? David of Angers! Is he not, also, for 
the cause of the people? Well, when so many illustrious men declare in favour of 
democracy, or struggle for its attainment, how conclude otherwise than that right and 
Providence combat with us, and for us? Those are the teachings of talented men; but 
have not the teachings of the people also their manifestations? Look at Poland—heroic 
Poland—the last pulsations of whose heart still throb for liberty—no longer possessing 
an army; each day some martyr consecrates himself to her cause. Italy; she too longs 
for unity. She emerges from her ruins, which constituted her glory, in order to acquire 
fresh renown. May she on awakening distrust herself; let her remember Masaniello. 
Switzerland;— I feel that I ought well to weigh my words at this solemn moment. We 
can do one thing, gentlemen, we can unite ourselves for an instant, by recollection, by 
thought, with those whom we look upon as brothers, in order to pray that victory may 
be with them, as have hitherto been right and reason! The cause of Switzerland is 
ours, gentlemen; the Radicals there wage war against two things, which are the 
plague-spots of our era—aristocrats and worthless priests. Respect our creeds, but war 
against those who, under the mask of religion, are the abettors of despotism, and of 
tvranny. Short-sighted beings! who see not in this double association of genius and of 
the people, the near advent of a Messiah of equality! Thus then, O people, to whom I 
would sacrifice all that I possess of devotedness and strength, hope, and _ believe. 
Between this period, in which thy ancient faith is extinguished, and in which the new 
light has not yet been showered upon you, each evening in thy desolate dwelling 
piously repeat the immortal symbol—LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY! Yes, 
liberty for all; liberty of conscience; liberty of thought, liberty of association; for man 
cannot become moral without communing with man, and it is in order the better to 
subjugate him that he is isolated by a system of corruption. They know that a bundle 
of sticks cannot be broken. Equality likewise for all—equality in presence of civil law, 
equality in political matters, equality in education, in order that man may have no 
superior, except in morals or in virtue! Fraternity—inexhaustible source, from 
whence will spring noble and celebrated institutions; of association, of strength. 
Then labour will no longer be a right, it will be a duty. Let there be no more 


396 Frederick Engels 


revenues, except from labour and for labour. Yes, salvation. O great and immortal 
symbol, thy advent draws nigh! People, may the plaudits bestowed on thy humble 
interpreter be wafted to thee, and prove at once a consolation and a hope!” 


Compiled and translated into English _ . - Reprinted from the newspaper 
in the first half of December 1847 


First published in The Northern Star 
No. 530, December 18, 1847 

with editorial note: 

“From Our Paris Correspondent”