We only published the poem by G. Herwegh in our last issue* to 
show what can happen to the once-admired art of political-poetic 
declamation if it is brought low by Swiss republicanism. The 
relevant editorial comment was however omitted due to a mistake. 

a Georg Herwegh’s poem written on the occasion of the Federal Marksmen’s 
Festival in Zurich, Das Volk, No. 12, July 23, 1859.— Ed. 

POLITICAL REVIEW*” 

London. The strike of the building workers, or, more correctly, 
the lockout by the builders, is continuing *”’ without any essential 
change in the positions of the two opposed sides. On Tuesday the 
workers’ delegates held a meeting, which was also attended by 
representatives from the other trades, at which it was decided 
unanimously not to take up work with any master who demanded 
a promise not to join the “society”.* At the same time the 
“associated”? masters got together in the Freemasons’ Tavern, no 
reporters being allowed. It was learned later that the light- 
shunning gentlemen, after a stormy debate, agreed that no 
member of the association should open his establishment until the 
building workers had formally broken with the “society” and 
before “Mr. Trollope’s hands had put an end to their strike”. 
The last point might well be settled shortly, since Mr. Trollope 
recently engaged in negotiations with the workers and gave most 
positive assurances that the complaints made against him (dis- 
charge of a worker who handed the nine-hour petition, etc.) were 
based on a misunderstanding. As for the other condition, 
however, the “locked-out” men will not consent to it by any means 
unless forced to by extreme distress; they feel that breaking with 
the “society”, renouncing any organisation, would mean making 
themselves downright serfs of the capitalists and abandoning the 
last bit of independence left to the modern proletarian. The brutal 
obstinacy of the. masters, who are arrogating for themselves the 

a “Meeting of Trades’ Delegates”, The Times, No. 23387, August 17, 
1859.— Ed. 
b “The Nine Hours Movement”, The Times, No. 23387, August 17, 1859.— Ed. 

Appendices 637 

same authority over their “hands” as the American planter over 
his slaves, has aroused the disapproval even of a section of the 
bourgeois newspaper writers. Naturally, we have no reason to be 
displeased with the masters; they are doing everything in their 
power to make the already deep rift between labour and capital 
even wider and to produce that concentrated, conscious class 
hatred that is the surest guarantee of a social revolution. 

London has a total of over 1,000 building establishments. Of 
them only 88, but the largest, are locked out. The number of 
“locked-outs” comes to 19,000-20,000, not 40,000, as was asserted 
at first. Money contributions are pouring into the “society” 
plentifully from every part of the country, but up to now the 
unemployed workers have declined to draw relief. Honour to the 
brave! Would the bourgeoisie be capable of such sacrifice in its 
class interest? 

In the last days of the session, which ended on Saturday, the 
Lower House was concerned almost exclusively with election 
scandals, which have sprung up like mushfooms out of the ground 
and covered every wall of the Houses of Parliament. There was a 
fearful stench of corruption, which harmonised excellently with 
the odours of the Thames: and would have nauseated the 
honorable members if they had not been accustomed to such 
things. In some cases it was a question of individuals who had 
bought or sold herds of British voters openly (and that was the 
offence) like so many herds of sheep; in other cases it was some 
poor wight who voluntarily gave up his dearly-paid seat because 
he could not afford to defend it against a petition that would have 
cost at least £3,000,—but let us leave this. Why wallow in the filth? 
We will only add that almost all the members who were proved 
guilty of bribery belong to the “Liberal” Party.*” 

There is almost nothing to be said about the speech from the 
throne. It is a completely vapid document. On the projected 
European congress it states that Her Majesty has not yet arrived at 
any definite decision.* That is a lie. Immediately after the signing 
of the Treaty of Villafranca Lord Palmerston declared to the 
Russian Government that he was prepared to send representatives 
to the congress Russia had proposed. That is, he had already 

“arrived at a definite decision” four weeks earlier. 

Paris. We spare our readers an account of the victory celebration 
in Paris. Despite the complicated machinery set in motion to make 

a Queen’s speech in the House of Lords, August 13, 1859, The Times, 
No. 23385, August 15, 1859.— Ed. 

638 - Appendices 

people forget the defeat at Villafranca, to divide the attention of 
the population of Paris and to bring the throats of the interested 
parties to shouting, the Emperor personally is said to have been so 
little pleased with his reception that he took the desperate step of 
the amnesty, even though his Decembrist advisers urgently advised 
against it. The Paris press also received an amnesty; all “warnings” 
have been revoked.* 

From Berlin nothing but the old empty phrases and continua- 
tion of the woebegone agitation for reform of the Confederation 
under Prussian hegemony. The merging of the Gotha party with 
the democrats is now an accomplished fact, as will be seen from 
the following notices—-The condition of the King” has not 
improved. 

In Eisenach another meeting of “German patriots” was held on 
August 14, to proclaim, with the approval of the high authorities, 
that Gothaism is the only means of salvation.“ Among the 
assembled celebrities we find mentioned: Herr von Bennigsen 
from Hanover; Zabel from Berlin (seest thou how thou art?); 
Siegel, editor of the Sdchsische Konstitutionelle Zeitung; Titus from 
Bamberg; Schulze from Delitzsch, etc. Of course, the programme 
drawn up for the newly formed German Party contains: reform of 
the Confederation, Prussian hegemony, repeal of the Federal 
Diet’s decrees against freedom of the press and assembly, etc. 
Finally, Frankfurt was chosen to be the venue of the next assembly, 
probably in order to be near St. Paul’s Church.*” 

On the other hand, it is reported from Hanover that the 
government there, in order to compete with its Prussia-loving 
patriots, against whom it is beginning to take police action, has 
raised the question of Schleswig-Holstein again. 

4 Napoleon III’s decree of August 16, 1859 on the amnesty of those condemned 
for criminal and political offences, Le Moniteur universel, Nos. 228 and 229, August 16 
and 17, 1859; Napoleon III’s decree of August 16, 1859 revoking administrative 
warnings to the press, Le Moniteur universel, No. 230, August 18, 1859.— Ed. 

6 Frederick William IV.— Ed. 

© “Eisenach (die Kundgebung ftir preussische Hegemonie)”, Allgemeine Zeitung, 
No. 242, August 30, 1859.— Ed. 

NOTES 
AND 
INDEXES 

NOTES 

! This volume covers the period from early August 1858 to early February 1860, 
when Marx’s intensive contribution to the New-York Daily Tribune, the organ of 
the US Republican Party, ended. 

Marx worked as a correspondent of the Tribune from August 1851 to 
March 1862, but a large number of the articles he sent were written at his 
request by Engels. Marx began to send his own articles to New York in August 
1852. Initially, he wrote them in German and his friends, most frequently 
Engels, translated them into English. But by January 1853 he had sufficiently 
mastered the English language to write in English. 

Marx’s and Engels’ articles in the New-York Daily Tribune mainly dealt with 
the most important questions of foreign and home policy, the working-class 
movement, the economic development of the major European countries, 
colonial expansion and the national liberation movement in the oppressed and 
dependent countries. 

In the autumn of 1857, in view of the economic crisis in the USA, which 
had also affected the newspaper’s finances, and the waning interest there in 
European affairs, Marx had to reduce the number of his articles. Subsequent 
events in Europe, however, compelled the Tribune editors to devote more space 
to his reports. 

From mid-1855 onwards, most of Marx’s articles were published as 
editorials, without his signature. For this reason their authorship and date of 
writing have been determined mainly by means of Marx’s Notebook for 
1858-60 and the letters of Marx and Engels to each other and to third persons. 
Additional information was obtained from study of the sources used by Marx 
and Engels for their reports, from the schedules of transatlantic ships by which 
Marx sent his -eports during this period, and from other indirect data. 

Marx’s wife, Jenny, and sometimes Marx himself entered in the Notebook 
the dates on which the articles were written before dispatching them from 
London to New York. This was necessary above all for the accounts with the 
Tribune. Apart from the dates, these entries often contained remarks disclosing 
the content of the articles. 

The article with which this volume opens is one of a series written in August 
and September 1858 and dealing with the 1857 financial crisis in Britain. 

In his letter to Engels of September 21, 1858, Marx writes: “By way of 

642 Notes 

no 

1) 

evaluating the Report of the Committee on the late crisis I sent the paper [the 
N.Y.D.T.] several articles, which it printed as leaders, specifically relating to 
banking, currency, etc...” (see present edition, Vol. 40). 
The article is entered in Marx’s Notebook for 1858 as “6 Friday Bankact 
P 
The Bank Charter Act (An Act to Regulate the Issue of Bank-Notes, and for 
Giving to the Governor and Company of the Bank of England Certain 
Privileges for a Limited Period) was introduced by Robert Peel on July 19, 
1844. It provided for the division of the Bank of England into two separate 
departments, each with its own cash account—the Banking Department, 
dealing exclusively with credit operations, and the Issue Department, issuing 
bank-notes. The Act limited the quantity of bank-notes in circulation and 
guaranteed them with definite gold and silver reserves which could not be used 
for the credit operations of the Banking Department. Further issues of 
bank-notes were allowed only in the event of a corresponding increase in the 
precious metal reserves. The issue of bank-notes by provincial banks was 
stopped. The Act was suspended several times by the government itself, in 
particular, during the monetary crises of 1847 and 1857. 

Marx analysed the Act of 1844 and its significance in a number of articles 
for the New-York Daily Tribune: “The Vienna Note.—The United States and 
Europe.—Letters from Shumla.—Peel’s Bank Act” (see present edition, 
Vol. 12), “The English Bank Act of 1844 and the Monetary Crisis in Britain”, 
“The British Revulsion” (Vol. 15). A detailed description of the Act was given 
by Marx later, in Vol. III of Capital (Chapter XXXIV). p. 3 

Rich gold deposits were discovered in California in 1848 and Australia in 1851. 
Apart from their great importance for the commercial and industrial 
development of the European and American countries, these discoveries whipped 
up stock-exchange speculation there. p. 4 

” 

This article was preceded by Marx’s report which is entered in his Notebook 
for 1858 as “27 Friday. China. Peace treaty. Russia. “Times’”’. It was heavily 
edited and published in the New-York Daily Tribune, No. 5428, September 14, 
1858 as a leading article. Owing to the Tribune editors’ interference, the report 
became purely informative and lost features typical of Marx’s articles, it has 
therefore not been included in this volume. 

As for the article in question, it is entered in the Notebook for 1858 as “10 
Tuesday Bankact”’. 

In his letter to Engels of September 21, 1858, Marx mentions a letter 
written by a Tribune reader in connection with this article and published in the 
newspaper on September 4 under the signature “A bullionist”. Marx writes: 
“Along comes a banker, a self-styled ‘bullionist’, and writes a letter to the 
Tribune in which he 1. says that never has so comprehensive a summary of the 
whole subject been penned, etc., but 2. raises all kinds of objections and invites 
the editors to reply. So reply the poor devils must and indeed very sad work 
they made of it” (see present edition, Vol. 40). 

Here is what the banker wrote about the article: ““A more comprehensive 
summary of banking, credit currency, prices and fluctuations, was probably 
never penned.” The author makes “a few suggestions on the general subject 
and on the use of terms which are not generally understood”. He goes on to 
say that “with the increase of currency, prices rise; with its decrease, they fall’’, 
therefore it is the duty of the banks to regulate the amount of currency in the 
country. He concludes: “I entertain the ‘vulgar notion’ that over-issues of 
bank-notes set in motion an over-issue of bank credits, inflate prices, ruin our 

Notes 643 

home industry, produce disastrous fluctuations, prostrate the business and 
industrial occupations of the great masses of the people, and tend to divide our 
population into two great divisions—a very few men of princely wealth on the 
one hand, and a nation of poverty-stricken laborers or dependents on the 
other.” 

The Tribune’s reply in the same issue of the newspaper deals with particular 
questions concerning money circulation: the dependence of export and prices 
on the currency, the relation of import and export in countries with paper and 
metallic currency. p- 8 

5 The heading is given according to Marx’s Notebook for 1858, where the 
following entry is made: “31 Tuesday. History of the Opium Trade.” p. 13 

6 This refers to the unequal treaties signed in Tientsin in June 1858 by Britain 
and France with China during the second Opium war (1856-60). The treaties 
made new ports available to foreign commerce: on the River Yangtze, in 
Manchuria and on the islands of Taiwan and Hainan, also the port of Tientsin. 
Foreign diplomatic representatives were authorised in Peking; foreigners were 
allowed to travel freely in the country for commercial or other purposes. 
Britain and France received economic privileges through the introduction of 
new commercial rules legalising the opium trade, and were paid indemnities. 
The Peking treaties of 1860 which ended the second Opium war increased the 
indemnities to be paid out by China. The British received the right to recruit 
Chinese for work in colonies and other places. Britain obtained the southern 
part of the Tsulung (Koulung) peninsula. The Peking treaties confirmed the 
remaining, unchanged, articles of the Tientsin treaties, which were ratified 
simultaneously with the signing of the Peking treaties. Though the USA did not 
officially take part in the war, it rendered aid, above all diplomatic, to Britain 
and France. This gave the USA the possibility to sign with China the Tientsin 
Treaty of June 1858 which guaranteed it a number of commercial privileges, 
the most-favoured-nation treatment and freedom of activity for US missionaries. 

p. 13 

7 The British East India Company was founded at the beginning of the 
seventeenth century. It had the monopoly of trade with the East Indies and 
played a decisive part in establishing the British colonial empire. 

The East India Company’s trade monopoly was abolished in 1813. The only 
exception was trade with China, the main articles of which were opium and tea. 
The Company was finally liquidated in 1858, during the popular Indian 
uprising of 1857-59. Marx gave a detailed description of the Company in his 
article “The East India Company—Its History and Results” (see present 
edition, Vol. 12). p. 15 

8 The heading is given in accordance with the following entry in Marx’s 
Notebook for 1858: “3 Friday. History of the Opium Trade.” 
In the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune and the New-York Weekly Tribune the 
article was published under the heading “The British Opium Monopoly”. 
p. 17 

9 Hong—a privileged merchants’ guild, founded in China in 1721, whose 
members, for payment of a large entrance fee to the treasury, obtained a 
monopoly of trade with foreigners. It was dissolved after the conclusion of the 

Nanking Treaty in 1842. p. 17 
10 This article is entered in the Notebook for 1858 as “7 Tuesday. Bangya”. 
p. 21 

644 Notes 

The reference is to the manifesto published in The Star on June 28, 1858 and 
signed by Majors Kalmar and Tukory, and Veress, in which the Hungarian 
emigration at first doubted Bangya’s guilt and then virtually dissociated 
themselves from him, considering this affair as Bangya’s personal business, and 
called for unity and brotherhood between the Hungarians and Poles. 

The manifesto was reprinted in The Free Press on June 30, 1858, and Marx 
presumably used this publication for his article. p. 23 

Marx’s Notebook for 1858 as “10 Friday. China”. p. 28 

The Continental System, or the Continental blockade, proclaimed by Napoleon I in 
1806, after Prussia’s defeat, prohibited trade between the countries of the 
European Continent and Great Britain. Napoleon’s defeat in Russia in 1812 put 
an end to the Continental System. p. 30 

In 1850 popular unrest spread over a number of southern provinces in China 
and developed into a powerful peasant war. The insurgents established a state 
of their own over a considerable part of Chinese territory. It was called the 
Celestial Empire (Taiping Tankuo, hence the name of the movement—the 
Taiping uprising). The leaders of the uprising put forward a utopian 
programme calling for the existing social order to be transformed into a 
militarised patriarchal system based on the egalitarian principle. The movement, 
which was also anti-colonial in character, was weakened by internal strife and the 
formation of its own aristocracy in the Taiping state. It was dealt a crushing blow 
by the armed intervention of Britain and France. The Taiping uprising was put 

down in 1864. p. 31 
The reference is to the second Opium war of Britain and France against China 
in 1856-60. p. 31 

In Carthage money capital was obtained by means of customs taxes imposed on 
the provinces dependent on Carthage. 

In Ancient Rome money capital was provided by contributions and the 
spoils of war. p. 32 

The reference is to the Polish emigrants who settled in Turkey after the 
1848-49 events. During the Crimean war some of them decided to fight on the 
side of the Turks. p. 38 

The ruling classes of Moldavia and Wallachia sought to create a single 
Rumanian state through diplomacy, thinking this the most convenient and the 
safest way. p. 38 

During the Crimean war of 1853-56, Greece became the scene of a movement 
for the reunification with Greece of Thessaly, Epirus and other Greek lands 
ruled by Turkev. The peasants’ uprisings in these regions were supported by 
the Greek army which occupied Thessaly and Epirus in 1854. Turkey 
responded with military operations. It was supported by Britain and France 
which occupied part of Greek territory. p. 38 

The reference is to the Vienna treaties—the treaties and agreements concluded 
at the Congress of Vienna held by the European monarchs and their ministers 
in 1814-15. They established the borders and status of the European states 
after the victory over Napoleonic France and sanctioned, contrary to the 
national interests and will of the peoples, the reshaping of Europe’s political 

Notes 645 

map and the restoration of the “legitimate” dynasties overthrown as a result of 
the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The Vienna treaties confirmed 
France’s territory within the borders of 1790 and the restoration of the 
Bourbons in France. p. 39 

2 

—_ 

In the battle of Marathon (Attica) in 490 B.C., during the Greco-Persian wars, 
the Greeks defeated the Persians. Using a more progressive army formation the 
Greek general Miltiades secured a victory over the far more numerous but less 
organised Persian army. p. 39 

22 In this article Marx analyses a pamphlet by the French petty-bourgeois 
democrat Félix Pyat, Lettre aux mandarins de la France. Marx always took a 
negative attitude to Pyat, who in England in the 1850s and 1860s called for the 
assassination of Napoleon III and for “regicide” in general, thus giving the 
English police a pretext to deport revolutionary refugees, and the French police 
a pretext for persecuting participants in the working-class and democratic 
movement in France. Pyat always opposed an independent movement by the 
workers and was later an enemy of the First International. But this pamphlet 
attracted Marx’s attention because it contained “one or two facts that are 
interesting” (see Marx’s letter to Engels of October 8, 1858, present edition, Vol. 
40), viz., signs of the growing self-consciousness of the proletariat and its acting as 
a class. Besides, Marx quotes passages which testify to the crisis of the Bonapartist 
empire and show that the French bourgeoisie has exhausted its revolutionary 
potentialities. 

The dispatch of the article to New York is registered in Marx’s Notebook 
for 1858 as “24 Friday. Pyat’s Lettre aux mandarins”. 

The editors of the present edition do not have Pyat’s pamphlet at their 
disposal. p. 41 

23 Ixion (Greek Myth.), King of the Lapithae, tried to seduce the Goddess Hera 
but was deceived by Zeus who substituted for her a cloud in her own image. 
Here Pyat alludes to Guizot’s ideal of a representative monarchy and, in 
particular, to his Cours d’Histoire moderne. Histoire des origines du gouvernement 
représentatif en Furope. p. 42 

24 Fusionism—a policy which favoured the union of the Legitimists, supporters of 
the elder branch of the Bourbons, with the Orleanists, supporters of the 
younger branch. p. 42 

25 The Fronde, a movement in France against the absolutist regime from 1648 to 
1653, involved various social sections, which in many cases pursued opposite 
aims, from radical peasant and plebeian elements and oppositional bourgeoisie, 
to high-ranking officials and aristocrats. The defeat of the Fronde led to the 
strengthening of absolutism. 

Marx alludes to Victor Cousin’s Madame de Longueville, Madame de Sable, 
Madame de Chevreuse et madame de Hautefort, and other works written in the 
1850s under the general subtitle “Etudes sur les femmes illustres et la société du 
XVII-e siecle’. p. 42 

26 Thiers was Prime Minister when Napoleon I’s remains were transferred from 
St. Helena to Paris in 1840 and buried in the Déme des Invalides. 

Pyat also has in mind Thiers’ twenty-volume Histoire du Consulat et de 

V’Empire. p. 42 

27 Cent-gardes—the Emperor’s special privileged guard formed in France by a 
decree of March 24, 1854. p. 42 

646 Notes 

3 

— 

The reference is to the Charte octroyée granted in 1814 by Louis XVIII. It was 
the Bourbons’ fundamental law which introduced a regime of moderate 
constitutional monarchy with wide powers for the king and high electoral 
qualifications ensuring above all political privileges for the landed aristocracy. 

p. 42 

An allusion to the fact that Catholic and Bonapartist circles were displeased 
with Louis Veuillot, editor of the Catholic newspaper L’Univers religieux, in 
which he conducted a scandalous polemic against all those who professed other 
beliefs, and appealed to the Pope against them. p. 42 

An allusion to the closing of Lamennais’ newspaper Le peuple constituant. His 
words “silence au pauvre” (‘‘silence for the poor’) appeared in its last issue, on 
July 10, 1848. p. 42 

In his will Lamennais asked to be buried in a cemetery for the poor without 
any church rites. p. 42 

The reference is to the discussion and adoption in Belgium and Piedmont on 
February 18, 1858 of laws punishing instigation to attempts on people’s life and 
participation in them. They were adopted to please Napoleon III after an 
attempt on his life on January 14, 1858 by the Italian revolutionary Orsini. 

p. 43 

Belle Isle—an island in the Bay of Biscay, where political prisoners were 
detained in 1849-57; among others, workers who took part in the Paris uprising 
in June 1848 were imprisoned there. p. 43 

Cayenne—the reference is to French Guiana where political prisoners were sent 
for penal servitude. p. 43 

In Jiddah (a Red Sea port) a fierce clash took place between Moslems and 
Christians in 1858. p. 43 

An allusion to Louis Bonaparte’s words spoken in Bordeaux on October 9, 
1852, shortly before the plebiscite and the proclamation of the Second Empire. 
In an effort to win the people’s sympathy he declared demagogically:“L’Empire 
cest la paix” (“The Empire is peace’). p. 43 

Levites— Hebrew priests in the service of the temple of Jerusalem for whose 
benefit tithes were collected. p. 43 

This refers to the trial of a group of republicans who made two attempts on the 
life of Napoleon III in the summer of 1853 (on June 7 on the way to the 
Hippodrome and on July 6 at the Comic Opera). p. 44 

The secret republican society Marianne established in 1850 made numerous 
attempts to organise opposition to the Bonapartist regime. 

On the night of August 26, 1855, the Angers quarry workers, on receipt of 
the false news of the victory of the republic in Paris, marched to the city but 
were dispersed by government troops. 

In 1858, following Orsini’s abortive attempt on Napoleon III’s life on 
January 14, attempts at republican coups were made in a number of French 
towns, in particular, in Chalon-sur-Saéne on March 6 (on the Chalon-sur-Sa6ne 
events see present edition, Vol. 15). p. 44 

In connection with this article Marx wrote to Engels on December 17, 1858 that 
for months the Tribune had been publishing his articles about China as leaders. 

Notes 647 

He went on to say: “But when the official text of the Anglo-Chinese treaty was 
finally released, I wrote an article in which I said among other things that the 
Chinese ‘would now legalise the import of opium, likewise impose an import 
duty on opium and, lastly, probably also permit the cultivation of opium 
actually inside China’, and thus the ‘second Opium war’ would sooner or later 
deal a deadly blow to the English opium trade, and notably to the Indian 
Exchequer.... Mr. Dana printed this article as being from an ‘occasional 
correspondent in London, and himself wrote a bombastic leader refuting his 
‘occasional correspondent” (see present edition, Vol. 40). 

This leader, published in the same issue in which Marx’s article was printed, 
reads in part: “We do not, however, consider as very probable, at least not at 
an early day, the consequence which our correspondent anticipates of the 
opening of the ports of China to the legal importation of opium and still less 
the legalizing of its cultivation in China.” 

In the above-mentioned letter Marx goes on to say that he wrote another 
article to the Tribune “qua ‘occasional correspondent’”, “somewhat mocking, 
though of course restrained, about my ‘castigator’”’. 

This article was not published by the New-York Daily Tribune. p. 46 

The Treaty of Nanking, concluded between Britain and China in 1842, was the 
first of a series of unequal treaties imposed by the Western powers on China, 
which reduced it to the status of a semi-colony. The Nanking Treaty made 
China open five of its ports to British commerce—Canton, Shanghai, Amoy, 
Ningpo and Fu-chou, cede the Island of Hongkong to Britain “in perpetuity” 
and pay a large indemnity. It introduced import and export tariffs advantage- 
ous to Britain. The latter did not succeed in legalising the import of opium, 
though the Nanking Treaty did not oblige the British Government to prohibit 
British subjects to trade in opium. 

The supplementary protocol of 1843 concerning the general rules for 
trading in the five open ports contained articles (2, 7, 13) envisaging cooperation 
between the British and Chinese authorities in inspecting the goods brought to 
the ports and in organising their work. 

Similar treaties with China were also signed by the USA and France. On the 
Tientsin Anglo-Chinese Treaty see Note 6. p. 46 

This refers to the incident which sparked off the second Opium war: the 
seizure by the Chinese authorities of the British lorcha Arrow with contraband 
opium in Canton in 1856. The British Ministry responded by sending to China a 
corps of 5,000 men under the command of Lord Elgin. Canton was brutally 
bombarded and on December 29, 1857 captured by the British. p. 46 

Sycee siluer—ingots of silver of definite weight used in China at that time as 
coins called taels (liangs). In international trade 750 taels were equal to 1,000 
dollars. p. 47 

The reference is to the Aigun and Tientsin treaties concluded between China 
and Russia. 

The establishment of the first ties between Russia and China dates back to 
the thirteenth century and that of official contacts to the early seventeenth 
century, when the Russians began the economic development of the Amur 
(Amoor) Region. In the 1680s an Albazin Voivodeship was set up embracing 
the Amur Valley, from the confluence of the Shilka and the Argun. 

The Manchu dynasty which established itself in Peking in the mid- 
seventeenth century and subjugated the Chinese people sought to take 

648 | Notes 

possession of the Amur Region developed by the Russians. The policy of 
expansion pursued by the Ching Government resulted in a military conflict 
with Russia in the 1680s. The necessity to settle the armed clashes of Russian 
Cossacks and peasants in the Amur Region with Manchu armed detachments 
which attacked them and tried to drive away the local population led to the 
dispatch, in 1686, of a mission under F. A. Golovin to Nerchinsk to negotiate 
with the Ching Government. The Ching troops, who had actually occupied the 
Albazin Voivodeship and were near Nerchinsk during the talks, totalled 15,000 
men, while Golovin’s guard numbered 2,000. Under the Nerchinsk Treaty 
signed on August 29, 1689, Russia was forced to give up the large territory of 
the Albazin Voivodeship. No border-line in the proper sense of the word was 
established for lack of precise geographical reference points and because the 
Russian, Latin and Manchu copies of the treaty were not identical. 

Under the Aigun Treaty of May 28 (16), 1858, the left bank of the Amur, 
from the confluence of the Shilka and the Argun to the sea, was recognised as 
Russian territory, while the question of the Ussuri Area, from the confluence of 
the Ussuri and the Amur to the sea, was left open until the final fixing of the 
frontier between Russia and China. Navigation on the Amur, Sungari and 
Ussuri was prohibited to all states except Russia and Ching China. The treaty 
thus returned to Russia the left bank of the Amur developed by the Russians in 
the seventeenth century and taken from it under the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689. 
Besides, it thwarted the British diplomats’ attempt to aggravate Russo-Chinese 
relations and closed the Amur to West-European shipping. 

The Tientsin Treaty of June 1 (13), 1858 confirmed the articles of the 
Aigun Treaty. Russia’s frontier on its eastern part was finally defined by the 
supplementary Peking Treaty, signed on November 2 (14), 1860, under which 
the land on the eastern banks of the Ussuri and Sungach was recognised as 
Russian territory and the land on the western banks as that of Ching China. 

See also Note 6. p. 50 

This article is entered in Marx’s Notebook for 1858 as “October 1. Friday. 
Russian serfs”’. p. 51 

The Chief Peasant Question Committee is the name given in January 1858 to the 
Secret Committee “for discussing measures to arrange the life of the 
landowners’ peasants” which began its sittings on January 3, 1857 with 
Alexander II as chairman. The aim of the Chief Committee was to consider 
“the decisions and proposals concerning serfdom”. The Grand Duke Constan- 
tine was among its members. 

In November 1857 a rescript was issued inviting each gubernia to form 
landowners’ committees for the purpose of drafting the conditions for the 
abolition of serfdom. Such committees were set up in all gubernias in the 
course of 1858. Their composition varied, the majority consisting of big 
serfowners and the minority, of liberal landowners. p. 51 

By an 1807 edict the Prussian Government granted personal freedom to the 
peasants, abolishing their hereditary subjection (Erbuntertdnigkeit) to the 
landowners. However, all feudal obligations of the peasants connected with the 
use of landowners’ lands remained in force. The conditions for the redemption 
of these obligations were defined by a number of successive edicts. In 1808 the 
landowners succeeded in acquiring the right to appropriate peasant plots. The 
“regulating” edict of 1811 contained extremely harsh conditions for redemp- 
tion. It concerned only those peasants who had hereditary or lifelong rights to 

Notes 649 

their plots of land. The masses of leaseholders continued to be in bondage. It 
was not until 1850 that defeudalisation was completed. p. 52 

The reference is to Alexander I’s edict “On the Freeing of His Peasants by the 
Landowner on Conditions Based on Mutual Consent” adopted on February 20, 
1803, and to Nicholas I’s edicts of 1842, 1844, 1846 and 1847. p. 52 

This article is marked “Berlin” but was written by Marx in London. By 
agreement with the Tribune editors, Marx marked some of his articles on the 
different European countries “Paris”, “Berlin” or “Vienna” respectively, 
sometimes indicating an earlier date than that of their actual writing. p. 54 

On March 18, 1848, during the dispersal of a demonstration before the king’s 
palace in Berlin, two shots were fired. This provocation on the part of the 
Prussian military command served as a signal for armed barricade fighting 
which ended in the defeat of the royal troops. As a result of the street fighting 
several hundred Berliners; were killed and many wounded. The insurgents took 
over the guard of the palace, and on the morning of March 19 they forced the 
king to go out on to the balcony and bare his head before the corpses of the 
fallen fighters. p. 55 

According to Greek mythology, Dionysus, a god of wine, in order to avenge 
himself on Pentheus, King of Thebes, for not acknowledging him as god, led 
all the Theban women away to the Cithaeron mountains where they indulged 
in orgiastic and bacchanalian rites, and in their frenzy killed Pentheus. 

p-. 55 

In 1843 Frederick William IV, who wanted to revive the romantic aspect of 
feudalism, issued a decree on the rebirth of the Order of the Swan, a medieval 
religious order of Knights (founded in 1440 and dissolved during the 
Reformation). The King’s intention did not materialise, however. p. 57 

The heading is given according to the following entry in Marx’s Notebook for 
1858: “8 Friday. Russian Progress in Central Asia.” As we see from Marx’s 
letter to Engels of October 8, 1858, Marx also published this article in The Free 
Press on November 24 but changed its beginning and end. It appeared in The 
Free Press under the heading: “Russian State Papers Respecting Her Recent 
Advance to Our Indian Frontiers.” p. 59 

This refers to General Perovsky'’s abortive expedition organised in 1839 to 
conquer Khiva, and to the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1838-42. When speaking 
of the British reverses, Engels seems to have in mind the difficulties 
experienced by the British army during the seizure of and withdrawal from 
Kabul in 1839-42. p. 59 

The Khanate of Khiva acknowledged its dependence on Russia only as a result 
of the treaty signed by Russia and Khiva on August 12, 1873. Between 1853 
and 1857 Perovsky erected a number of fortifications on the Syr-Darya River. 

p. 62 

On its arrival in Bukhara, after the negotiations in Khiva, the Russian mission 
on October 11, 1858 reached an agreement with the Emir of Bukhara on 
freedom of navigation for Russian ships on the Amu-Darya, on the reduced 
duties on Russian goods and on authorisation of a temporary commercial agent 
in Bukhara. Under the 1868 treaty concluded after the capture of Samarkand 
by the Russians and the defeat of the Emir’s army, and supplemented by the 
1873 treaty, Bukhara acknowledged Russia’s protectorate. 

650 Notes 

6 

_ 

The Kokand Khanate was finally annexed to Russia in February 1876. 
p. 63 

During the March 1848 revolution in Germany the Prince of Prussia fled to 
England. As commander-in-chief of the Prussian forces he took part in 
suppressing the Baden-Palatinate uprising of 1849. p. 67 

The Seehandlung is short for the Preussische Seehandlungsgesellschaft (Prussian 
Maritime Trading Company). It was founded as a commercial and banking 
company in 1772 and granted a number of important privileges by the state. It 
advanced big loans to the government and in fact became its banker and 
broker. p. 67 

Chambre introuvable—the name of the French Chamber of Deputies in 1815-16 
given to it by Louis XVIII. Its extreme conservatism, expressed in the 
ultra-reactionary actions of its majority, forced the King to disband the 
chamber. p. 68 

During the so-called Warsaw Conference in October 1850, the Russian Tsar 
Nicholas I spoke in a sharp and threatening tone to Prussia’s Prime Minister, 
the Count of Brandenburg. Upon his return from Warsaw the Count suddenly 
died, which was attributed to Nicholas’ insulting behaviour and to the Count’s 
emotions caused by Prussia’s national humiliation. p. 72 

The laws of Manu—an ancient Indian collection of instructions defining the 
duties of each Hindu in accordance with the dogmas of Brahminism. According 
to Indian tradition, these laws were drafted by Manu, the mythical father of 
people, approximately between the second century B.C. and the first century 
A.D. p. 74 

This refers to the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (Declaration of 
the Rights of Man and the Citizen) adopted by the French Constituent 
Assembly on August 26, 1789, during the French Revolution. It proclaimed the 
main principles of the revolution: sovereignty of the people and the natural 
rights of man—the right to freedom, property, security and resistance to 
oppression. p. 76 

Patrimonial jurisdiction deals with the transfer of patrimony (from patrimonium, 

a term of the Roman law), property inherited from one’s father. This right 

belonged to the feudal lord who performed judicial functions in his estate. 
p. 77 

Roman tradition associates the name of Servius Tullius with the reforms which 
led to the establishment of the state system in Rome. The most important of 
these was the centurial reform which put an end to the gentile constitution and 

completed the transition to the slave-owning system. According to this reform, 

gentile tribes were replaced by territorial, and the plebs became part of the 
Roman people (populus Romanus). The entire population of Rome was divided 
into five classes according to property qualifications. Each class provided a 
definite number of centuries (centurie), or army companies of a hundred men 
each, which were also political divisions. Of great importance were the 
assemblies of centurie, where each class received a number of votes correspond- 
ing to the number of centurie it placed in the field. This system made it possible 
for the more propertied classes to influence the settlement of major political 
questions. p. 81 

Notes 651 

In the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune this article is published under the heading 
“Russia in China”. p. 82 

The Heracleatic peninsula—part of the Crimean peninsula west of Inkerman up 
to Balaklava—was one of the major theatres of military operations during the 
siege of Sevastopol. When Marx says that Russia was deprived of ‘“‘a small slice 
of territory”, he refers to that part of Bessarabia which Russia had to cede 
under the Paris Treaty of 1856. . p. 82 

This is what Nicholas [ called Turkey in his. talk with the British envoy 
G. Seymour in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1853. He suggested that Turkey 
should be divided between Russia and Britain, but Britain rejected the proposal 
for it did not want to see Russia become stronger and was interested in 
preserving the weak Ottoman Empire. Marx deals with this question in his 
article “The Documents on the Partition of Turkey” (see present edition, Vol. 
13). See Correspondence Respecting the Rights and Privileges of the Latin and Greek 
Churches in Turkey. Presented to Both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her 
Majesty, Part I, “Eastern Papers. Seymour to Russell, January 11, 1853”, 
London, 1854, pp. 875-78. pe 82 

See Note 41. p. 83 

This article, published in the New-York Daily Tribune as a leader, bears signs of 
the editors’ interference; in particular, they heavily edited the first paragraph 
and added the last one. The enthusiastic epithets used to describe Bright also 
belong to them. The heading is given according to the beginning of the article. 
In the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune it appeared under the heading 
“Radicalism in England”’. p. 87 

On June 11, 1858 Marx wrote in his article “Political Parties in England.— The 
Situation in Europe”: “The fact is that the two ruling oligarchic parties of 
England were long ago transformed into mere factions, without any distinctive 
principles. Having in vain tried first a coalition and then a dictatorship they are 
now arrived at the point where each of them can only think of obtaining a 
respite of life by betraying their common interest into the hands of their 
common foe, the radical middle-class party, who are powerfully represented in 
the Commons by John Bright” (present edition, Vol. 15). p. 87 

The reference is to the war waged by Britain and France against China in 
1856-60 (the second Opium war). In his article “The British Quarrel] with 
China” (present edition, Vol. 15) Marx described in detail the events which 
served as the casus belli. 

On the defeat of the Manchester school in the elections to the House of 
Commons in March 1857 see Marx’s article “The Defeat of Cobden, Bright and 
Gibson” (present edition, Vol. 15). p. 87 

On January 20, 1858 Count Walewski, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
sent a Note to the British Government expressing dissatisfaction with Britain’s 
granting of the right of asylum to political refugees. In view of this, on 
February 8 Palmerston introduced the Conspiracy to Murder Bill in the House 
of Commons. During the second reading of the Bill on February 19, Milner 
Gibson proposed an amendment censuring Palmerston’s Government for not 
replying to the Note. Adopted by the majority, the amendment was actually a 
vote of no-confidence in the government and forced it to resign. p. 87 

This sentence was inserted by the Tribune editors. p. 88 

652 | Notes 

8 

rear 

Marx gave an assessment of Bright’s programme in his letter to Engels of 
November 29, 1858: “As regards the reform movement in England, all I have 
discussed latterly is Bright's meeting in Birmingham, the gist of the article 
being that his programme is a reduction of the People’s Charter to the 
middle-class standard” (see present edition, Vol. 40). p. 88 

Marx refers to Point 4 of the People’s Charter, which was the Chartists’ political 
programme. It reads: “Voting by ballot to prevent bribery and intimidation by 
the bourgeoisie” (see present edition, Vol. 4, p. 518). p. 88 

The reference is to the Reform Bill which was finally passed by the British 
Parliament in June 1832. The Reform Act of 1832 consisted of three acts 
adopted accordingly for England and Wales on June 7, for Scotland on July 17, 
and for Ireland on August 17, 1832. It was directed against the political 
monopoly of the landed and finance aristocracy and enabled the industrial 
bourgeoisie to be duly represented in Parliament. The proletariat and the petty 
bourgeoisie, the main forces in the struggle for the reform, remained 
disfranchised. p. 88 

The Birmingham Political Union for the Protection of Public Rights, founded 
by Thomas Attwood in 1830, played an important role in the struggle for the 
1832 reform. p. 89 

Roundheads—the nickname given by the Royalists to the Parliamentarians 
during the seventeenth-century English revolution. p. 89 

In the New-York Daily Tribune this is followed by a paragraph inserted by its 
editors: “For our part, regarding the question as one of political justice and 
popular progress, and as tending, in its solution, to a more democratic 
government of England, we hail Mr. Bright’s movement with joyful hope, and 
bid him God-speed in his manly and noble efforts.” p- 90 

The party referred to is the Party of Order which united the rival monarchist 
groups—the Legitimists, Orleanists and Bonapartists—and supported Louis 
Napoleon. The Legitimists and Orleanists, exponents of the interests of the 
elder and the younger branch of the Bourbons, hoped with Louis Napoleon’s 
aid to pave the way for the restoration of the monarchy. Their hopes, however, 
proved fruitless: the Bonapartist coup d’état of December 2, 1851 put an end 
to the activities of the Party of Order. 

For details on this see Marx’s work The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis 
Bonaparte (present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 99-197). p- 91 

This refers to the republican uprisings which broke out at the end of 1851 in 
Southeast, Southwest and Central France in response to the Bonapartist coup 
d'état. Their main participants were artisans and workers of small towns, local 
peasants, traders and intelligentsia. The uprisings involved some twenty 
departments, but being local and isolated they were soon put down by the 
police and troops. 
By a decree of January 9, 1852, sixty-six republican deputies of the 
Legislative Assembly, including Victor Hugo, were banished from France. 
p. 94 

The office of Lord President of the Council (later the Privy Council), 
introduced in England in the seventeenth century, remained in the British 
Cabinet as an honorary office, the holder of which had no direct influence on 
government affairs. p- 96 

Notes 653 

This refers to Louis Napoleon's plans in the latter half of 1852 to marry a 
representative of a European ruling dynasty. One supposed candidate was a 
daughter of Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. These plans did not 
materialise. p- 98 

Under the treaty of December 7, 1849, the Principality of Hohenzollern- 
Sigmaringen was annexed to Prussia. This was called forth by the 1848 
revolutionary events in the principality, as a result of which Prussian forces 
were brought in. p. 99 

Hudibras—the title character of a satirical poem by the English poet Samuel 
Butler written in 1663-78. Hudibras was distinguished by his inclination to 
absurd reasoning and disputes and his ability to prove the most absurd 
propositions by means of syllogisms. The poem was directed against the 
hypocrisy and bigotry of the English bourgeoisie. p. 102 

The Crédit Mobilier is short for the Société générale du Crédit Mobilier—a 
French joint-stock bank founded in 1852 by the Péreire brothers. The bank was 
closely connected with the Government of Napoleon III and, protected by it, 
engaged in speculation. It went bankrupt in 1867 and was liquidated in 1871. 

p- 102 

On June 26, 1849 the liberal deputies of the Frankfurt National Assembly, who 
had walked out after the Prussian King’s refusal to accept the Imperial Crown, 
met in Gotha for a three-day conference which resulted in the formation of the 
so-called Gotha party. This party expressed the interests of the pro-Prussian 
German bourgeoisie and supported the policy of the Prussian ruling circles 
aimed at uniting Germany under the hegemony of Hohenzollern Prussia (see 
present edition, Vol. 11, p. 22). p. 103 

This refers to the war waged by Prussia against Denmark in 1848-50. Being 
defeated, Prussia was forced to conclude a treaty with Denmark (1850) under 
which Schleswig and Holstein remained within the Kingdom of Denmark. 

p. 104 

The Financial Reform Association was founded in April 1848 in Liverpool. It 
advocated economical government, just taxation and perfect freedom of trade. 
p. 104 

Demagogues in Germany were participants in the opposition movement of 
intellectuals. The name became current after the Karlsbad Conference of 
Ministers of the German states in August 1819, which adopted a special 
decision against the intrigues of “demagogues”’. p. 104 

The centralisation of the Austrian monarchy, undermined by the 1848-49 
revolution, was restored by patent of the Emperor of Austria on December 31, 

1851. p. 107 
In the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune this article was published under the 
heading “Napoleon’s Last Scheme”. p- 110 
See Note 86. p-. 114 

Treubund (the Union of the Loyal)—a Prussian monarchist society founded in 
Berlin at the end of 1848. Late in 1849 it split into ultra-royalists and 
constitutional monarchists. 

The Orangemen—members of the Orange Society (Order), a militant 
Protestant organisation founded in Ireland in 1795 and used by the authorities, 

654 Notes 

— 

Protestant landlords and the clergy against the Irish national liberation 
movement. The name was derived from William III, Prince of Orange, who 
suppressed the Irish uprising of 1688-91. The Order had an especially strong 
influence in Ulster, Northern Ireland, where the population was mainly 
Protestant. p. 117 

The reference is to Touchard-Lafosse’s eight-volume Chroniques de Uoetl-de-boeuf 
published in Paris in 1829-33. The oeil-de-boeuf was a large ante-room to the 
bedroom of the French king in the palace of Versailles, lighted only by a small 
round window (oeil-de-bocuf). Here the courtiers waited for the king and could 
engage in all sorts of intrigue. p. 118 

The heading is given according to the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune and the 
New-York Weekly Tribune. p. 120 

The insurrection at Milan on February 6, 1853 was raised by the followers of 
the Italian revolutionary Mazzini and supported by the Hungarian revolution- 
ary elements in the Austrian army. Marx analysed it in a number of articles 
(see present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 508-09, 513-16 and 535-37). 

The landing at Sapri (province of Salerno) of a small detachment for the 
purpose of raising a revolt in the south of Italy took place late in June 1857. 

The republican uprising in Chalon-sur-Saéne took place on the night of March 
5, 1858. 

This attempt on the life of Napoleon II] was made by the Italian 
revolutionary Orsini on January 14, 1858. p. 120 

The reference is to the party of radical Free Traders. p. 120 

The Italian actress Adelaide Ristori played the title-role in Giacometti’s drama 
Judith. At the end of the play she sang a hymn containing the words: 

“Sappian essi che sacra é la guerra 

Se straniero minaccia la terra” 

(“Let them know that sacred is the war 

if the foreigner threatens the country’’). p. 122 

The Kreuz-Zeitung's party (Kreuzzeitungspartei)—a name given from 1851 to the 
end of the nineteenth century to the extreme Right wing of the Prussian 
conservative party grouped round the Neue Preussische (Kreuz-) Zeitung. 

p. 125 
The reference is to the “German Catholics’”— members of a religious movement 
which arose in a number of German states in 1844 and involved considerable 
sections of the middle and petty bourgeoisie. The “German Catholics” did not 
recognise the supremacy of the Pope, rejected many dogmas and rites of the 
Roman Catholic Church and sought to adapt Catholicism to the needs of the 
German bourgeoisie. p. 127 

This refers to the battle of Jena on October 14, 1806, in which the Prussian 
troops were defeated by Napoleon’s army. This resulted in Prussia’s capitula- 
tion. p. 128 

, 

In 1797 the Ionian Islands which formerly belonged to the Venetian Republic, 
came under French rule. During the war of the second European coalition 
against Napoleonic France a combined Russo-Turkish squadron under 
F. F. Ushakov was sent to the Mediterranean in 1798 and freed the Ionian 
Islands from the French. But under the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, which 
acknowledged the French territorial conquests, the Ionian Islands were 
returned to France. 

Notes 655 

The Vienna Treaty of 1815 established Britain's protectorate over the 
Ionian Islands. In the 1850s national movement for union with Greece was 
mounting in these islands and in Greece itself. In November 1858 Gladstone 
was sent to the Ionian Islands on a special mission. Though the Legislative 
Assembly of Corfu, the main Ionian island, voted unanimously for union with 
Greece, the British Government managed to drag out the solution of the 
question, and it was not until 1864 that the Ionian Islands were transferred to 
Greece. 

By calling Gladstone “Homeric” Marx may be alluding to the fact that 
Gladstone was the author of the Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age 
published a short time previously. 

On November 24, 1858 The Free Press (London) published a number of 
documents on the Ionian Islands which Marx used for his article. p. 129 

After being liberated from French rule, the lonian Islands were proclaimed, in 
1799, the Republic of the Seven United Islands, and a Provisional Plan for 
Establishing Government was introduced, known as the Ushakov Constitution. 
But the latter was not approved by the guarantors of the Ionian Republic. The 
Provisional Plan of 1799 found its continuation in the 1803 Constitution, also 
drawn up with the direct participation of Russia’s representatives. This 
Constitution was annulled by the French administration in 1807 (see Note 103). 

Having received the protectorate over the Ionian Islands, Britain introduced 
a new Constitution in 1817 which invested its representative—the Lord High 
Commissioner of the Ionian Islands—with unlimited powers. 

The mounting movement for the independence of the Ionian Islands and 
their unification with Greece compelled the British Government (in which 
Henry Grey was Secretary for the Colomies) to carry out a reform in 1849 
extending local self-government and the electoral rights of the Ionians. 

p. 132 

When Lord Derby was the Chief Secretary for Ireland (1830-33) he pursued a 
policy of repression against the [rish people. An Act for the More Effectual 
Suppression of Local Disturbances and Dangerous Associations in Ireland 
(Coercion Act) which Derby managed to pass through Parliament in 1833 
abolished freedom of assembly and introduced a state of emergency and 
military tribunals, and suspended the Habeas Corpus Act. 

The Orange Lodges—see Note 94. p. 134 

Clearance of estates—eviction of peasants from their lands by the landlords, 
typical of nineteenth-century England. Marx gave a detailed description of this 
process in his Cajnital (Vol. I, Ch. XXVIJ). p. 135 

“True blues”’—the term that appeared in Great Britain in the seventeenth 
century to designate the representatives of the moderate wing of the Puritans 
who chose blue as their colour in contrast to the red of the monarchy. Later it 
was applied to members of the British Conservative Party. 
While Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1797-1801, Castlereagh supported the 
Orangemen’s policy of terror in respect of Ireland’s Catholic population. 
Green Erin—an ancient name for Ireland. p. 135 

The Phoenix Club—a secret society founded on the basis of a local literary club 
in Skibbereen, County Cork, in the mid-1850s by the Irish poet and writer 
Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, later one of the leaders of the revolutionary 
Fenians who fought for Ireland’s independence. This society was the first step 

HI