(...] Hereupon Dr. Marx, editor-in-chief of the Neue Rheinische 
Zeitung, examines the principles of Herr Weitling, pronounced at the 
meeting of the Democratic Society held a fortnight ago,* and in a 
pithy and fairly long speech seeks to prove, on the grounds of 
the historical development of the revolutions that have taken place 
during the last few centuries, that. the separation of political and 
social interests assumed by Weitling is as unthinkable as their direct 
opposition, that, rather, the political and social interests must 
interpenetrate. The claim that social development retards political 
development was also incorrect; unfortunately, in respect of social 
development we Germans had only now arrived at the point which 
the French had already reached in the year 1789; the present 
contradictions could only be resolved by sharply defining them and 
emphasising the interests of the individual classes; only in this way, 
that is by using intellectual weapons, can an amicable settlement be 
achieved. The disregard of the position of the various strata of the 
population to one another, the refusal to make reciprocal conces- 
sions and wrong notions about class relations have led to the bloody 
outcome in Paris. The dictatorship which Weitling proposed as the 
most desirable constitutional form is, for similar reasons, regarded 
by Marx as impractical and quite unfeasible, since power cannot be 
attained by a single class; the intention to carry on a dictatorship in 
accordance with a system devised by a single brain, deserves to be 
called nonsensical. On the contrary, the governing power, just as the 
Provisional Government in Paris, must consist of the most heteroge- 


* On July 21, 1848.— Ed. 


Appendices 557 


neous elements, which by means of an exchange of views have to 
agree on the most appropriate mode of administration. 

Herr Engels reports on the Government’s rejection of the 
application for citizenship of Dr. Marx.* As the latter was a 
Rhineland Prussian by birth, and as since the March revolution all 
political refugees have had their citizenship restored to them, this 
interpretation of citizenship involved injustice and breach of faith; 
he would thereby be regarded as a foreigner who could be expelled 
at any time.