Letter to Paul Lafargue, February 4, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 4 February 1871


First published, in the language of the original (English), in Annali, an. 1, Milan, 1958
Reproduced from the original
Published in English in full in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE

IN BORDEAUX

[London,] 4 February 1871

Dear Paul,

Il faut créer des nouveaux défenseurs à la France[1] You and Laura seem seriously and successfully engaged in that patriotic business. The whole family was delighted to hear that our dear Laura has passed victoriously through the critical juncture and we hope the progress will prove no less favourable.

Embrace little Schnappy[2] on my part and tell him that Old Nick[3] feels highly elated at the two photograms of his successor. In the 'serious' copy the stern qualities of the little man protrude, while in his attitude as franc-fileur[4] there is a charming expression of humour and espièglerie.[5]

You know my low opinion of middle-class heroes. Still, Jules Favre et Co. have contrived to surpass my worst anticipations. When Trochu had carried out his mysterious 'plan', that is to say, when that sabre orthodoxe', that crétin militaire had pushed the passive resistance of Paris to that point where there remained only the alternative of starvation or capitulation—Jules Favre and Co. might have followed the precedent of the Governor of Toul.[6] When his power of resistance had altogether broken down, he did not capitulate. He simply informed the Prussians of the real state of things, declared that he could not any longer go on with the defence, being deprived of provisions, and that they might now do as they liked. He made them no concession at all. He simply recognised a fait accompli Favre et Co., on the contrary, not only sign a formal capitulation.[7] They have the impudence to act on behalf of all France, although in complete ignorance of the state of affairs en dehors de Paris[8] in regard to which they were strictly confined to the dishinterested[9] information Bismarck condescended to vouchsafe them. Moreover, having capitulated, having become Messieurs les prisonniers du roi de Prusse,[10] they go further and declare that the bordelais delegation[11] has lost its power and must only act in union with Messieurs les prisonniers du roi de Prusse'. Why, even Louis Bonaparte, after his capitulation and surrender at Sedan,[12] declared to Bismarck he could enter into no negotiations with him, because he had ceased to be a free agent, and because, by the very fact of his being a Prussian prisoner, he had ceased to hold any authority over France!

Thus even L. Bonaparte was less shameless than Favre et Co.! The only condition which Favre could have accepted conditionally, that is to say under the reserve of his act being assented to by the bordelais delegation, was the armistice. Yet to settle the terms of that armistice he must have left to the men who were not prisoners of le roi de Prusse. They would certainly not have allowed the Prussians to exclude from that armistice the Eastern theatre of war, and would not have allowed the Prussians to improve, on the plea of the armistice, the whole outlines of their military occupation, rounding it off in the way most profitable to themselves.

Embolded by the dastardly servilism of the Paris delegation who presume to participate in the government of France, after having become Messieurs les capitulards[13] et les prisonniers du roi de Prusse, Bismarck considers himself and acts already as the de facto supreme authority in France. He protests against Gambetta's decree relating to the general elections as interfering with their liberty.[14]

He dictates the terms on which the General Assembly ought to be chosen. Why! Gambetta might reply by protesting against the conditions under which at this very moment the general elections for the Reichstag[15] are carried on in Germany? He might insist that to render these elections free, Bismarck ought above all things to abolish or at least to suspend the state of siege maintained through great part of Prussia. To give you one instance of the liberty of election in Germany. At Frankfort (on the Main) a workmen's candidate (not residing in Frankfort) is proposed and opens his electoral campaign in that town. What do the Prussian authorities resort to? To the expulsion of that candidate from Frankfort by the police force!

I hope that the Prussians will insist on their modest demand of 400 millions of £ sterling war contribution by France![16] This may rouse even the French middle class whose manoeuvres together with the intrigues of the local administration (which Gambetta has allowed to a great part to rest in the hands of Bonapartists, Orleanists, etc.) are the true key to the till now reverses of the war. Even the middle class may at last become aware that they will lose more by giving than by fighting!

At the same time, if France holds out still for some time, the foreign relations will become much more favourable to her cause.

In England the Gladstone ministry is seriously endangered. It may soon be kicked out. The public opinion here is now again warlike to the highest degree. This change has been worked by Prussia's demands, mainly by her asking Pondicherry and the 20 first-rate French men-of-war. John Bull sees in this a menace against England and a Russian intrigue (and these demands have indeed been suggested to Prussia by the St Petersburg cabinet).

In Russia itself a great change seems imminent. Since the assumption of the Imperial title by the King of Prussia, the anti-German party, the so-called Moscovite party, led by the Prince successor,[17] has again got the upper hand. It is very probable that the present Emperor[18] will either have to accept its dictates and a consequent change of his foreign policy, or that he will share the fate of his predecessors and by some means or other [be] released of his 'mortal body'. If such a convulsion in Russia takes place, Prussia, whose frontiers on the Russian and Austrian sides are quite denuded of troops, quite exposed and defenceless, will prove unable to keep up her present forces in France. She will at once lower her tone and become quite traitable.[19]

Hence, if France holds out, if she improves the armistice to repair her forces, if she understands at last that in order to carry on a revolutionary war, revolutionary measures and revolutionary energy are wanted, she may still be saved. Bismarck knows perfectly that he is in a fix. He hopes to get out of it by 'bullying'. He confides in the cooperation of all reactionary elements of France.

Yours,

Old Nick

P.S. The master who now employs Dupont has received a letter from a house at Bordeaux which wants an agent at Manchester. Behind the back of his master—a most infamous and brutal parvenu—Dupont would like to ascertain whether he would get that agency. He therefore requests you to obtain information about this point. The address of the house in question, is: Labadie et Co. (Vins et esprits) Rue des terres de Bordes. Bordeaux.

What is Prudhomme doing? Has his health improved?

  1. ↑ One should create new defenders for France.
  2. ↑ Charles Etienne Lafargue
  3. ↑ Marx's family nickname
  4. ↑ Lit. 'free runaway' (comp, franc-tireur 'free shooter')—a nickname for Paris bourgeois who fled the city during the siege in 1870-71. Laura called her son franc-fileur because of his fear of unfamiliar objects.
  5. ↑ mischief
  6. ↑ i.e. Hück, who gave up resistance on 23 September 1870 after the siege which had lasted from 19 August
  7. ↑ the Bretons—the Breton Mobile Guards, whom Trochu used as a gendarmerie to suppress the revolutionary movement in Paris. The Bretons replaced the Corsicans who, under the Second Empire, constituted a large section of the gendarmerie corps.
  8. ↑ outside Paris
  9. ↑ The insertion of 'h' in this word is ironic and derives from Cockney dialect.
  10. ↑ Worthy prisoners of the King of Prussia
  11. ↑ This refers to the delegation of the Government of National Defence sent to Tours in mid-September 1870 to organise resistance to the German invasion in the provinces and to carry on external relations. From the beginning of October till the end of the war the delegation was headed by Gambetta. In early December 1870, it moved to Bordeaux.
  12. ↑ On the surrender at Sedan see Note 91.
  13. ↑ a contemptuous nickname for those who came out for the surrender of Paris during the 1870 71 siege; later on it came to denote the capitulants in general.
  14. ↑ Marx is referring to a decree issued by Gambetta on 31 January 1871 which deprived all persons who had held high official posts during the Second Empire of the right to stand for election. On 3 February Bismarck sent a protest to Gambetta referring him to the clause on 'freedom of elections'. The government in Paris also issued a decree on electoral procedure which led to a serious conflict between Gambetta and the other members of the government, after which Gambetta resigned.
  15. ↑ The first elections to the Reichstag since the proclamation of the German Empire were fixed for 3 March 1871.
  16. ↑ The indemnity which Bismarck demanded from France and which she undertook to pay under the treaty was 5,000 million francs. The report on the armistice published in The Times on 2 February 1871 spoke of 10,000 million francs.
  17. ↑ Alexander Alexandrovich (future Alexander III)
  18. ↑ Alexander II
  19. ↑ manageable