{London,] 12 September 1870 

My dear Sir, 

Last Wednesday” A. Serraillier, a member of the General 
Council of the International Workmen’s Association, went to Paris 
as the plenipotentiary of the Council. He thought it his duty to 
remain there, not only for taking part in the defence, but to bring 
his influence to bear upon our Paris Federal Council, and he is, in 
point of fact, a man of superior intellectual quality. His wife was 
to-day informed of his resolution. Unfortunately, she is not only 
sans sou, she and her child, but the creditors of Serraillier having 
claims to the amount of about £12, threaten to sell her furniture 
and throw her on the street. Under these circumstances I and my 
friends have resolved to come to the rescue, and it is for this that I 
take the liberty to call, by this letter, also on you and your friends. 

You will find that the Address? I laid before the General 
Council, Friday last, and which is in course of printing, coincides 
on many points almost literally with your pamphlet. 

My opinion is, that Paris will be forced to capitulate, and from 
the private letters I receive from Paris it appears that some 

a Lydia Burns - » 7 September - © penniless - 4 K. Marx, ‘Second Address of the 
General Council of the International Working Men’s Association on the Franco- 
Prussian War’.-¢ E. S. Beesly, A Word for France: Addressed to the Workmen 
of London. 

influential members of the Provisional Government are prepared 
for such a turn of events. 

Serraillier writes me to-day that the haste with which the 
Prussians march upon Paris, is the only thing in the world able to 
prevent a new Insurrection of June'™*! Paris fallen, France will be 
far from lost if the provinces do their duty. 

The Federal Council of Paris bombards me with telegrams, all to 
this effect: Recognition of the French Republic by England. In point of 
fact, it is most important for France. It is the only thing you can at 
present do for her. The King of Prussia* treats officially 
Bonaparte as the ruling Sovereign of France. He wants to restore 
him. The French Republic will not exist officially before its 
recognition by the British Government. But no time is to be lost. 
Will you allow your Queen” and your oligarchs, under the 
dictation of Bismarck, to abuse the immense influence of England? 

Yours faithfully, 
Karl Marx 

Apropos. There is just now much useless talk in the English Press 
about ‘our defences’. In case of a war with Prussia or the other 
military powers of the Continent, you have one, but this one an 
infallible, means of attack—to destroy their maritime commerce. 
You can do so only by re-vindicating your ‘maritime rights’, which 
by a Ministerial intrigue, not by any sanction of Parliament, were 
in the Paris Treaty of 1856 surrendered to Russia. Russia 
considers this point of such decisive importance, that she caused 
Prussia, at the very commencement of this war, to exaggerate 
those clauses of the Paris ‘understanding’.'* Prussia was, of course, 
but too willing. In the first instance she had no navy. In the 
second instance, it is, of course, the common interest of the 
continental military powers to make England, the only great 
maritime power of Europe, surrender the most telling means of 
maritime warfare on the plea of humanity! The privilege of 
inhumanity—and you can make no war in a ‘humane’ way—being 
reserved for the land forces! Besides, this diplomatic ‘philan- 
thropy’ supposes that property——-always on sea, not on land—is 
more sacred than human life. This is the reason why the stultified 
English manufacturers and merchants allowed themselves to be 
duped by the Paris clauses on maritime war—of no possible use to 
them, because not accepted by the United States. And only in a 
war with them such a proviso could be of any value to the 

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