Letter to Friedrich Engels, January 31, 1855

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 31 January 1855


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 31 January 1855

Dear Engels,

Enclosed 2 articles on Gladstone's financial policy.[1] In the first one, the chaps have clearly misprinted some figures. However, all you are really concerned with is refreshing your memory as to the SPIRIT of the whole plan.

Herewith a survey of the Coalition's activities:

1853

December 16? Fall of Disraeli overthrown (by a majority of 19), ostensibly because of the extension of the HOUSE-TAX and the

'EXTENSION OF THE GENERAL AREA OF DIRECT TAXATION'. The determining factor, the Irish Brigade[2]

Coalition formed:

  • 'We have now arrived at the commencement of the political millennium....' (Times).[3]

CHRISTMAS RECESS. February 10. Parliament reassembles. Russell's old programme of 1850. No question of a Reform Bill[4] until they reassembled the following winter.

  • 'Next session is not quite so uncertain as tomorrow...' (Times).[5]

On the other hand, a mass of practical and administrative reforms promised: law reform, railway regulations, education, etc. Gladstone postpones his budget until after the EASTER RECESS.

February 18.

* 'It is no longer a Ministry of Reform: It is a Ministry of Progress, every member of which resolves to do nothing. All difficult questions are open questions'* (Disraeli).[6]

21 February. Clarendon FOREIGN MINISTER. Russell Minister without portfolio or salary.

February 24. Russell's Jewish bill.[7] * 'The Policy of Abstention' proclaimed on the Eastern question, is also the ministerial policy at home.*

4 April. RUSSELLS EDUCATIONAL REFORM BILL.

7 April. Before presentation of the budget: GLADSTONE'S FINANCIAL SCHEME.

15 April. Debate in the House on the GUNPOWDER PLOT.[8] It transpires that Palmerston is acting as GENERAL INFORMER for the CONTINENTAL POLICE.

EASTER RECESS (don't know the date).

31 May. Russell insults Catholics in Parliament.[9] Irish members[10] resign from Ministry. Aberdeen's letter to them of 3 June.[11] Russell retracts.

Main items in the spring and summer session: 1. India Bill: Ministry wishes to extend EAST INDIA COMPANY CHARTER (EXPIRING ON APRIL, 1854) by 20 years. Is compelled to drop this, its bill remaining in force only provisionally and for so long as it pleases Parliament. Apart from laying down that APPOINTMENTS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE AND SCIENTIFIC MILITARY SERVICES are to be subject to open competition, this Act confines itself to the following: Sir Charles Wood (President of the BOARD OF CONTROL) is to receive £5,000 instead of £1,200 as previously, 18 DIRECTORS instead of 24. Instead of all being nominated by the COURT OF PROPRIETORS, now 12 to be nominated by the latter and 6 by the Ministry. Salary of DIRECTORS to be once more increased from £300 to £500, those of the CHAIRMAN and DEPUTY CHAIRMAN to £1,000. GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP of India to be separated from the GOVERNORSHIP of Bengal. New PRESIDENCY ON THE INDUS. Thus, instead of the inexpensive and, as practice has shown, efficient SIMPLE COMMISSIONERS, new GOVERNORS and PRESIDENTS with LUXURIOUS COUNCILS. NEW SINECURES. A few quite insignificant little reforms in the Indian judiciary.

2. Budget. Many of its FEATURES lifted from Disraeli, but whereas it removes EXCISE DUTIES for the benefit of the town, Disraeli did so ostensibly for the benefit of the FARMERS; thus the tea DUTY business, extension of direct taxation, etc., of Jewish origin. Some of the most important decisions forced upon Gladstone after he and his opposition to them had been repeatedly voted down in Parliament. For instance, the abolition of the ADVERTISEMENT DUTY; the SUCCESSION DUTY. LICENSING SYSTEM, NEW REGULATION dropped after undergoing several transformations in the course of the session. Of the budget, which made its début with all the pretensions of a systematic encyclopaedia, nothing remains save a mixtum compositum[12] of LITTLE ITEMS. Typical feature: the noble Gladstone includes in his BUDGET a special BILL—abolition of STAMPS ON NEWSPAPER SUPPLEMENTS—intended to buy The Times, in effect making it a present of £30-40,000 a year. Since it alone issues SUPPLEMENTS, consolidates its monopoly.[13] The Times gratefully abandons its campaign against his INCOME TAX and today is again demanding his inclusion in the new Cabinet.

3. Three Irish LANDLORDS and TENANTS BILLS[14] Introduced by the Tory Napier[15] under the Derby MINISTRY Passed on 1 August after 10 months' deliberation in the COMMONS. Aberdeen (9 August) expresses his satisfaction in the LORDS at their having been burked there.[16]

4. * Parliamentary reform, national education reform, law reform (a few trifles apart) etc. postponed. Transportation Bill,[17] Navigation Bill * etc. inherited from the Derby MINISTRY. Jewish bill rejected. Nothing can truly be described as the MINISTRY'S own [save a] the great CAB ACT which had no sooner crossed the threshold than it required revision by Parliament because 'all the talents' of the chaps had not even sufficed to create hackney carriage regulations. β) Gladstone's conversion of the PUBLIC DEBT, the FAILURE of which he had to admit before Parliament as early as 28 JULY[18]

August 20. (Day of Parliament's PROROGATION—27 October.) Palmerston dismisses the Commons with the assurance that they need not worry about the Eastern affair, * 'as far as the evacuation of the principalities was concerned...* their PLEDGE was, *"his confidence in the honour and character of the Russian Emperor", which would move him to withdraw his troops voluntarily from the principalities'*.[19]

3 December. Sinope.

12 December. Note of the 4 POWERS to the Porte, in which au fond[20] more was demanded of it than in the Vienna Note.[21]

14 December. First, Palmerston agrees in the Conseil[22] of Ministers to telegraph Vienna, saying the Sinope affair should not be allowed to upset the negotiations; then, in order to deceive the philistines, on

15 December, hands in his RESIGNATION, allegedly because opposed to Russell's REFORM BILL. Returns to office, of course, as soon as his end attained.

1854

Mid-January. Resignation of Sadleir, the BROKER to the Irish Brigade, following SCANDALOUS DISCLOSURES before an IRISH COURT OF LAW. Had been Junior Lord of the Treasury. (Later, the VIRTUOUS Gladstone wishes to dispatch to Australia as Governor his relative, Lawley, speculator in stocks while secretary to the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER and BETTING man. Discredited in Parliament. This same 'virtuous' chap engages O'Flaherty, who makes off with the cash-box, and brings one Hajward into the POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION on the strength of a lengthy lampoon against Disraeli. All the dirt piles up on the virtuous Gladstone.)

Beginning of February. Parliament reopens.

6 February. Palmerston announces his intention to introduce a bill for the organisation of the militia in Ireland and Scotland.[23] 28 March. War declared. Bill not introduced until end of June.

13 February. Russell introduces his Reform Bill, which he had made both a condition and an excuse for joining the Coalition. Withdraws it 10 weeks later with 'tears in his eyes'. As a token of gratitude, again made President OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL and gets a salary.[24]

6 March. Gladstone demands

  • 'only the sum which would be required to bring back the 25,000 men about to leave the British shores'.*[25]

DOUBLES THE INCOME TAX FOR 6 MONTHS, MAY 8 has again to introduce a new budget.

Mid-March. The Czar[26] forces the chaps to declare war by publishing the 'SECRET AND CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE',[27] which opens with a dispatch of 11 January 1853[28] and brands as deliberate lies all the statements made by the chaps during 1853.

7 April. Lord Grey (even then minded to become War Minister; notorious for having, as Colonial Minister, brought every English colony to the verge of rebellion) makes his speech in the LORDS[29] complaining about England's lack of military organisation. This merely provides the Ministers with an opportunity—8 June—of creating one more post and one more salary by separating the MINISTRY FOR WAR[30] from the COLONIAL MINISTRY without concentration of DEPARTMENTS. Cholera is likewise used as a pretext to create an INDEPENDENT President of the 'Board of Health' and thus a new ministerial post and salary.

May 29.

* 'Their' * (the Ministers') * 'measures were kicked overboard in a very unceremonious manner'* (Bright).[31]

Résumé of their domestic activities during this 2nd session: 7 major bills introduced. 3 of them * defeated: bill for the entire change of the law of settlement[32] ; bill for public education in Scotland; bill on the entire reconstruction of Parliamentary oaths.[33] 3 withdrawn: Bribery Prevention Bill; bill for the complete change of the civil service; measure for Parliamentary Reform. 1 bill—Oxford Parliamentary Reform Bill * passed, in very mutilated and modified form.

August 12. Prorogation of Parliament.

Extraordinary December session: Bills relating to the FOREIGN LEGION[34] and the Militia.[35]

A perusal of this list will recall enough facts to enable you to ridicule the fellows and, incidentally, cast a few aspersions on the worthy Palmerston in advance (in case he should become Premier).

  1. ↑ In April 1853 and from March to May 1854 Marx devoted several articles to Gladstone's financial policy. They were published in the New-York Daily Tribune, the Neue Oder-Zeitung and The People's Paper. The most detailed analysis of Gladstone's budget is given in 'The New Financial Juggle; or Gladstone and the Pennies', 'Achievements of the Ministry', 'L. S. D., or Class Budgets, and Who's Relieved by Them', 'Riot at Constantinople.—German Table Moving.—The Budget' (see present edition, Vol. 12), 'British Finances.— The Troubles at Preston', 'British Finances' and others (Vol. 13). It has not been established which articles Marx sent to Engels
  2. ↑ The Irish Brigade consisted of 48 Irish MPs who appeared in the House of Commons in 1852 demanding legislative independence for Ireland and defending the interests of the Irish tenant farmers. By the mid-1850s the Irish Brigade had actually disintegrated
  3. ↑ The Times, No. 21316, 4 January 1853, leader.
  4. ↑ The reference is to the Franchise Bill. As early as February 1852 Russell made a preliminary statement of his intention to introduce it (see his speech in the House of Commons on 9 February 1852, The Times, No. 21034, 10 February 1852); however, it was never debated in Parliament
  5. ↑ The Times, No. 21349, 11 February 1853, leader.
  6. ↑ B. Disraeli, [Speech in the House of Commons on 18 February 1853,] The Times, No. 21356, 19 February 1853.
  7. ↑ Marx refers to the 'Removal of Some Disabilities of Her Majesty's Jewish Subjects' Bill, introduced by Russell in the House of Commons on 24 February and aimed at admitting Jews to the House. Russell's Bill passed the House of Commons but was rejected by the House of Lords. Marx assessed it in the article 'Parliamentary Debates.—The Clergy Against Socialism.— Starvation' (see present edition, Vol. 11)
  8. ↑ In April 1853 as a pretext for reprisals against political refugees, the British authorities accused the proprietor of a rocket manufactory in Rotherhithe, in London, of a conspiracy with Kossuth which Marx ironically calls 'Kossuth's gunpowder plot' by analogy with the Catholic gunpowder plot against James I in England in 1605. In March 1853 the Prussian police arrested several liberal and radical bourgeois leaders in Berlin in an effort to trump up a new conspiracy case. These government and police actions are described in Marx's articles 'The Berlin Conspiracy', 'The Berlin Conspiracy.—London Police.— Mazzini.— Radetzky' and Marx's and Engels' article 'The Rocket Affair.—The Swiss Insurrection' (see present edition, Vol. 12)
  9. ↑ At the sitting of the House of Commons on 31 May 1853 Russell stated that the British Parliament should not sanction a state subsidy to the Catholic Church in Ireland because the Catholic clergy were not sufficiently committed to the English Crown and the Constitution. Russell's speech was published in The Times, No. 21443, 1 June 1853
  10. ↑ Keogh, Sadleir, Monsell
  11. ↑ G. Aberdeen, [Letter to Mr Monsell of 3 June 1853,] The Times, No. 21447, 6 June 1853.
  12. ↑ miscellany
  13. ↑ See K. Marx, 'Soap for the People, a Sop for The Times.—The Coalition Budget', 'Turkey and Russia.— Connivance of the Aberdeen Ministry with Russia.—The Budget.—Tax on Newspaper Supplements.— Parliamentary Corruption'.
  14. ↑ These Bills were introduced in Parliament in November 1852. Marx analysed and assessed them in the articles 'The Indian Question.—Irish Tenant Right' (see present edition, Vol. 12) and 'From the Houses of Parliament.—Bulwers' Motion.—The Irish Question' (Vol. 14)
  15. ↑ J. Napier, [Speech in the House of Commons on 22 November 1852,] The Times, No. 21280, 23 November 1852.
  16. ↑ G. Aberdeen, [Speech in the House of Lords on 9 August 1853,] The Times, No. 21503, 10 August 1853.
  17. ↑ The Transportation Bill, which abolished deportation of criminals to penal colonies, was passed on 12 August 1853. After preliminary detention the transportées were given release certificates granting them the right to reside in Britain under police surveillance, employed as cheap labour for public works. Marx assessed this Bill in 'The War Question.— British Population and Trade Returns.—Doings of Parliament' (see present edition, Vol. 12)
  18. ↑ Marx refers to the proposals on the public debt moved by Gladstone in the House of Commons on 8 April 1853. For details see Marx's articles 'The New Financial Juggle; or Gladstone and the Pennies', 'Achievements of the Ministry', 'Affairs in Holland.—Denmark.—Conversion of the British Debt.— India, Turkey and Russia', 'The Russian Humbug.—Gladstone's Failure.—Sir Charles Wood's East Indian Reforms' (present edition, Vol. 12). At the sitting of the House of Commons on 28 July 1853 Gladstone moved a resolution on measures for creating a public consolidated fund to pay for shares of the South Sea Company, which in fact meant the failure of the plan for conversion of the public debt (see K. Marx, 'Financial Failure of Government.—Cabs.— Ireland.—The Russian Question', present edition, Vol. 12)
  19. ↑ Palmerston, [Speech in the House of Commons on 20 August 1853,] The Times, No. 21513, 22 August 1853.
  20. ↑ basically
  21. ↑ On the Note of the four powers see Note 467; on the Vienna Note see Note 476
  22. ↑ Council
  23. ↑ Palmerston, [Speech in the House of Commons on 6 February 1854,] The Times, No. 21658, 7 February 1854.
  24. ↑ Russell, [Speeches in the House of Commons on 13 February and 11 April 1854,] The Times, Nos. 21664 and 21713, 14 February and 12 April 1854.
  25. ↑ Gladstone, [Speech in the House of Commons on 6 March 1854,] The Times, No. 21682, 7 March 1854.
  26. ↑ Nicholas I
  27. ↑ The reference is to the article 'On the History of the Eastern Question' published in the Journal de Saint-Pétersbourg, No. 336, 18 February (2 March) 1854 in connection with John Russell's speech in the House of Commons on 17 February 1854. The article alluded to the collusion of the Russian and British governments in the Turkish question supporting its statement by reference to Seymour's secret correspondence in 1853 and the memorandum of 1844. Marx analysed the position adopted by the two powers in the articles 'The Documents on the Partition of Turkey' and 'The Secret Diplomatic Correspondence' (see present edition, Vol. 13)
  28. ↑ Sir G. H. Seymour to Lord J. Russell. St. Petersburg, 11 January 1853, The Times, No. 21693, 20 March 1854.
  29. ↑ Grey, [Speech in the House of Lords on 7 April 1854,] The Times, No. 22720, 8 April 1854.
  30. ↑ The Office of the Secretary of State for War and Colonies was divided into the War Office and the Colonial Office in 1854. The Office of the Secretary of State at War was abolished. The term 'ministry', though used by Marx, was unusual in English in this context.
  31. ↑ J. Bright, [Speech in the House of Commons on 29 May 1854,] The Times, No. 21754, 30 May 1854.
  32. ↑ Under a law in force in England since 1662 paupers who changed their place of residence or applied to a parish for alms could be returned to their former place of residence by court decision. On 10 February 1854 a Settlement and Removal Bill was introduced in the House of Commons envisaging prohibition of forced settlement of paupers in England and Wales. The Bill was rejected by Parliament
  33. ↑ Under a law in force in England since the early eighteenth century newly elected MPs were to take an 'oath of abdication' denying the right of any heirs of James II to the throne; the oath contained expressions of loyalty to Christianity. Refusal to take the oath deprived an MP of the right of active participation in the work of Parliament
  34. ↑ The formation of a Foreign Legion for the purpose of reinforcing the British in the Crimea was envisaged by the Enlistment of Foreigners Bill passed in Parliament on 22 December 1854. The Legion was not formed however owing to protests against the use of foreign mercenaries
  35. ↑ The Militia Bill (an amendment to the Militia Act of 1852) was passed on 22 December 1854. The Bill provided for an increase in the militia from 80,000 to 120,000 men