352 The Treaty of Pressburg (Bratislava) signed on December 26, 1805, between Austria and Napoleonic France put an end to the war of the Austrian monarchy against Napoleon within the third anti-French coalition (Britain, Austria, Russia and Sweden). The signing of the treaty was preceded by the capitulation of the Austrian army at Ulm (October 17-20) and the defeat of the Austrian and Russian forces at Austerlitz (December 2).
353 In this article Engels pays special attention to the condition in Transylvania at the turning-point of the revolutionary war in Hungary. In January and February 1849 the Hungarian revolutionary troops checked the Austrian offensive on almost all the fronts and, harassing the Austrians by repeated attacks and continuous fighting, prepared for the decisive battle in April 1849.
In Transylvania as in other national regions which were part of Hungary at the time, the struggle was waged in the conditions of sharp national contradictions. The majority of its motley population — Rumanians, Hungarians including Szeklers, and Germans, mostly from Saxony — were Rumanian peasants exploited by the Hungarian landowners and Austrian officials Though the advanced part of the Rumanian bourgeoisie and intelligentsia welcomed the Hungarian revolution of 1848, the Austrian agents using social and national antagonisms organised an uprising of the Rumanians against revolutionary Hungary in September 1848. The Rumanian legions under Colonel Urban fought against the Hungarians together with the Austrian troops of Baron Puchner. However, the Polish refugee Bem, appointed commander of the Hungarian army in Transylvania in December 1848, prevented Puchner from entering Hungary via Transylvania and during January-March 1849 managed to inflict several serious blows upon the counter-revolutionary forces in Transylvania proper.
A small contingent of Russian troops sent to Puchner’s aid by Lüders, the commander of the Tsarist expeditionary corps in Wallachia, failed to stop Bem’s advance and by the end of March the latter had practically driven the enemy out of Transylvania. Bem’s success was furthered by his desire to reconcile the national contradictions between Hungarians and Rumanians notwithstanding the resistance of the representatives of the Hungarian Government, who expressed the interests of the Hungarian nobility. (Later Engels specially emphasised this in his article “Bem” written for the New American Encyclopedia.) The Rumanian democrat Balcescu also called for joint action by the Rumanians and Hungarians against the Habsburgs. Janku, the leader of the insurrectionary movement of the Rumanian poor peasants, held similar views.
However, the Hungarian revolutionaries among the bourgeoisie and the nobility realised too late that co-operation with the downtrodden nationalities was necessary. This made it possible for the Austrian ruling circles to use the Rumanian national movement in Transylvania, headed by the clerical-aristocratic clique, as a weapon against revolutionary Hungary. After the suppression of the Hungarian revolution in Transylvania, the Austrians established a regime of ruthless national oppression there despite all their demagogic promises.
354 After agreeing on the possibility of joint action against republican France in July 1791, Austria and Prussia signed a treaty in February 1792. The Austro-Prussian alliance encouraged by Tsarist Russia became the core of the first anti-French coalition, which by March 1793 was joined by Britain, Russia, Sardinia, Naples, Spain, Holland and some of the German principalities. In 1795 the coalition broke up.
The suppression by the Tsarist army of the 1794 Polish uprising led by Kosciuszko is connected with the first anti-French coalition. The insurgents demanded that the Constitution which had been proclaimed by the Four Years’ Sejm (1788-92) should again come into force. The adoption of the Constitution had been used as a pretext for the occupation of Poland by Prussia and Russia in 1793 and led to the second partition of Poland (the first was carried out by Prussia, Russia and Austria in 1772). After the suppression of the Kosciuszko uprising a third partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia and Tsarist Russia took place in 1795 and the Polish state ceased to exist.
355 See Note 170.
356 See Note 303.
357 Arians — a trend in Christian religion which was widely spread among several German tribes in the fourth and fifth centuries. Arian heresy was condemned by the official church in 381.
358 See Note 319.
359 Honvéd — literally: defender of the homeland; the name given to the Hungarian revolutionary army of 1848-49, which was set up by decision of the Hungarian revolutionary Government on May 7, 1848, on the formation of ten battalions of the Honvéd.
360 The original text of the speech from the throne made by Frederick William IV at the inaugural sitting of the Prussian Diet was published in a special supplement to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 233. February 28, 1849, In the text of the speech published after this article in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 234, March 1, 1849, this passage was changed as follows: “To my greatest regret a state of siege had to be proclaimed in the capital and its immediate environs to restore the rule of law and public safety. Corresponding proposals will he presented to you, gentlemen, without delay.” Below in the article the speech from the throne is cited from the latter publication. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
361 The reference is to the draft laws on clubs and meetings, posters and the press which were being prepared by the Government (on this see Marx’s article “Three New Draft Laws” published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung on March 13, 1849, present edition, Vol. 9). These drafts are compared with the reactionary press laws passed in France in September 1835 (see Note 181).
362 The reference is to the speech from the throne by Frederick William IV at the inaugural sitting of the Second United Diet (see Note 89) on April 2, 1848; the text of the speech was prepared by the Camphausen Ministry.
363 The White Hall — a hall in the royal palace in Berlin where the first joint sitting of the two Chambers of the newly convened Prussian Diet was held on February 26, 1849.
364 On March 21, 1848, Frederick William IV, frightened by the barricade fighting in Berlin, issued an appeal “To my people and the German nation” (see Note 210) in which he promised to set up a representative institution based on the estates, grant a Constitution, make Ministers responsible, introduce jury courts etc.
365 The reference is to the two decrees on amending the old trade statute introducing chambers of commerce (Gewerberäte) and trade courts (Gewerbegerichte) — which were issued by the Prussian Government on February 9, 1849.
366 Gagging laws — the name given to the six exceptional laws passed in England in 1819 after the cutting down by hussars and yeomanry of participants in a mass meeting for electoral reform at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester (the so-called battle of Peterloo); the laws restricted freedom of assembly and the press.
367 See Note 348.
368 Taking advantage of the forthcoming expiration of the seven months’ armistice signed by Denmark and Prussia at Malmö (see Note 75) the Prussian ruling circles refused to prolong it with a view to raising the prestige of the Prussian monarchy by waging the war, which was very popular in Germany, and realising their aggressive plans. Military operations were resumed in March 1849 and proceeded with varying success. Eventually, under pressure from the Great Powers, Prussia signed a peace treaty with Denmark in Berlin on July 2, 1850, temporarily renouncing its claims to Schleswig and Holstein and treacherously leaving the population of these duchies to continue the war alone. The Schleswig-Holstein troops were defeated and compelled to cease resistance. As a result both duchies remained within the Kingdom of Denmark.
369 The moderate liberal Gioberti who headed the Piedmont Government strove to use the movement which had spread in Italian states for an all-Italy Constituent Assembly and unification of the country in a democratic way in order to carry out the plan of establishing a federation of Italian states which was in the interests of the Savoy dynasty. After the proclamation of a republic in Rome on February 9, 1849, and the beginning of a campaign for a republic in Tuscany, Gioberti made efforts to restore the power of Pius IX and Grand Duke Leopold 11 with military aid from Piedmont. Such a policy and his refusal to carry out progressive reforms in Piedmont made Gioberti extremely unpopular and led to his resignation on February 21, 1849. Under mass pressure and apprehensive over the future of the Savoy dynasty in the impending crisis in Italy, the Piedmont ruling circles were compelled to declare on March 12, 1849, the resumption of the war against Austria. However, the Piedmont army, which was poorly prepared for the war and led by monarchist generals who were afraid to impart a really popular character to the war, was soon routed by the Austrians. On March 26 the new King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, was compelled to sign an armistice with Austria on more onerous terms than in August 1848.
370 The reference is to the failure of the counter-revolutionary General Laugier, supported by the Piedmont ruling circles and the Austrians, to interfere with the development of revolutionary events in Tuscany and prevent the abdication of Grand Duke Leopold If and the proclamation of a Tuscan republic. On January 30, 1849, the Grand Duke fled to Siena, and later to Gaeta, the residence of Pius IX. On February 18, a republic was proclaimed at a popular meeting (official introduction of the republican system was postponed till the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, which never took place due to sabotage by the moderate wing of the movement).
371 The information reproduced by Engels from a French newspaper was not entirely correct. However, the events which marked the beginning of the culminating stage of the struggle between the revolutionary movement in Sicily and the Government of King Ferdinand of Naples provided a basis for rumours about the proclamation of a Sicilian republic. On February 25, 1849, Ferdinand sent the Sicilians an ultimatum. Though promising to sanction the restoration of the 18 1 2 Constitution he demanded disarmament and consent to occupation of the major parts of the island by Neapolitan troops. The refusal of the Sicilians to accept the ultimatum led to fierce fighting; although the Neapolitan forces were superior in numbers and arms, the Sicilians offered resistance until the beginning of May 1849.
372 The thoughts expressed here show Engels’ keen insight into future military developments in Hungary. Indeed, the general counter-offensive of the Hungarian revolutionary army was launched in the mentioned region at the beginning of April 1849. On April 2, the revolutionary army won a major victory at Hatvan, followed by a series of strong blows at the enemy. Thus, Engels’ forecast did not come true so far as the time of the offensive was concerned, but was quite correct in respect of the place of concentration of the main Hungarian forces for a decisive blow and its direction.
373 A major part of the urban population in Transylvania was made up of Germans (Saxons) who constituted about 16 per cent of the region’s total population.
374 On November 22, 1848, Lassalle delivered a speech at a popular meeting in Neuss (near Düsseldorf) in which he called upon the people to offer if necessary armed support to the Prussian National Assembly. Lassalle was arrested on the same day. On the legal proceedings against Lassalle see Note 299.
375 Here and elsewhere, the reference is to the articles of the Code pénal (see Note 88).
376 Code d’instruction criminelle — the French Criminal Code in force in the Rhine Province of Prussia. Further Article 360 of this Code is cited.
377 The Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 186, January 4, 1849, carried information about the deputation of sixteen Düsseldorf citizens to Prosecutor-General Nicolovius among whom were members of the Cologne Workers’ Association and the Democratic Society. The deputation handed in a petition signed by 2,800 Düsseldorf citizens, the text of which the newspaper appended to the report.
378 Kameralgüter — landed estates which passed into the ownership of the Crown after the death of the last descendant of a feudal family. confiscated lands etc. The Kameralgüter also gave the owner the right to collect taxes and other privileges, and were managed by a special administration directly subordinated to the Hungarian Royal Chancellory in Ofen.
379 This note was probably written as a rough draft (many words and sentences are crossed out in the manuscript) of a report for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, but no item on this subject appeared in the newspaper.
The occasion for writing this note was a clash of the Workers’ Association (see Note 179) and the democratic organisations in Cologne with the police and military authorities who wanted to prevent the people’s procession on the occasion of the release from prison on December 23 of Gottschalk, Anneke and others acquitted by the jury after six months of imprisonment. The acquittal was seen by the masses as a victory of the democratic movement, which they wanted to celebrate by procession. The authorities prohibited this procession and it did not take place.
380 This fragment is apparently part of the draft of the fourth article in the series “The Bourgeoisie and the Counter-Revolution” which dealt with Hansemann and the Government of Action (see Note 153) he in practice headed. Some of the ideas were reflected in the published version of the article (see this volume, pp. 168-70).
381 The extant part of the draft of a speech at the trial of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung held on February 7, 1849 (see Note 284), refers to that part of Marx’s speech in which, on the basis of a legal analysis of the relevant articles of the French Code pénal he refutes the accusation levelled :At the newspaper’s editors of insulting Chief Public Prosecutor Zweiffel and calumniating the police officers. To what extent Marx used this draft in the speech itself tan be seen by comparing it with the published text (see this volume, pp. 304-17). The manuscript of the draft has come down to us in an incomplete and rough form, indecipherable in some places.
382 Marx was summoned before the examining magistrate on November 14, 1848, after the Neue Rheinische Zeitung published the second article in the series “Counter-Revolution in Berlin” containing a call to refuse to pay taxes as a measure against the counter-revolutionary coup d’état in Prussia (see this volume, pp. 16-18). However, fearing the people’s reaction to the persecution of the editors of a popular newspaper, the authorities confined themselves to confirming one of the charges brought against the Neue Rheinische Zeitung earlier, after it had published the appeal “To the German People” by the republican Friedrich Hecker (see Note 93).
383 Engels wrote this petition when he arrived in Berne about November 9, 1848, as a political refugee. On the reasons for his departure to Berne see Note 3. The warrant for his arrest and trial, mentioned in the petition, was issued by the Cologne judiciary, who, on the demand of the Imperial Minister of Justice, instituted proceedings against him and. a number of other persons for their speeches. at the public meeting in Cologne on September 26, 1848. Later, the judicial authorities found it expedient to annul the case, and this was officially announced at the end of January 1849, when Engels, who had returned to Germany, was summoned before. the examining magistrate (see this volume, p. 516).
384 The People’s Committee was elected on November 13, 1848, at a public meeting in Cologne held in protest against the transfer of the Prussian National Assembly from Berlin to Brandenburg. It consisted of 25 representatives of Cologne democratic and proletarian circles, among them Marx, Beust, Nothiung, Weyll and Schneider II. The Committee became one of the organising centres of the people’s struggle in the Rhine Province against the coup d’état in Prussia. It sought to rearm the civic militia, which was disarmed in September 1848, when a state of siege was declared in Cologne, and reorganise the army reserve on a democratic basis; it carried out agitation among soldiers and attempted to create a workers’ volunteer detachment. Taking part in the tax-refusal campaign, the People’s Committee tried to draw into it peasants from the neighbouring localities.
385 Article 209 of the Code pénal (see Note 88) concerns resistance to the representatives of state power, and Article 217, incitement to rebellion.
386 Marx, Korff and others were accused by the Imperial Ministry of having libelled deputies of the Frankfurt National Assembly in: 1) Georg Weerth’s series of feuilletons Leben und Taten des berühmten Ritters Schnapphahnski directed against Lichnowski, a Right-wing deputy, and published anonymously in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in August, September and December 1848 and January 1849; 2) a report from Breslau in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 95 for September 6, 1848, about Prince Lichnowski’s machinations in the electoral campaign; 3) a report from Frankfurt am Main in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 102 for September 14, 1848, exposing false information in the report by Stedtmann, deputy to the Frankfurt National Assembly, concerning the vote on the armistice with Denmark; 4) a resolution of a public meeting in Cologne published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 1 10 for September 23, 1848, in which the deputies of the Frankfurt ‘ National Assembly who had voted for the armistice with Denmark were accused of having betrayed the nation (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 588-89).
387 The trial of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung fixed for December 20, 1848, was postponed and was heard on February 7, 1849 (see this volume, pp. 304-22 and Note 284).
388 The First Congress of German Workers’ Associations and Democratic Organisations of Switzerland was held in Berne on December 9-11, 1848. On the work of the Congress and Engels’ participation in it see Note 175.
389 The reference is to the Central Committee of German Workers in Leipzig (see Note 199).
390 Marx’s and Engels’ defence counsel, lawyer Schneider If, demanded that the proceedings be adjourned in view of the fact that the accused had not been informed of the trial in due time (ten days prior). The trial took place on February 7, 1849.
391 When the Zeitung des Arbeiter-Vereines zu Köln (see Note 180) ceased to appear, the newspaper Freiheit, Brüderlichkeit, Arbeit which began publication on October 26, 1848, became the organ of the Cologne Workers’ Association (see Note 179). The publisher was Röser, Vice-President of the Cologne Workers’ Association, and the responsible editor was W. Pünz. At the end of December 1848, as a result of Gottschalk’s interference in the paper’s affairs, its publication was interrupted. From January 14, 1849, the newspaper Freiheit, Arbeit began to appear, its publisher being the printer Brocker-Evererts. Prinz, its responsible editor and a supporter of Gottschalk, pursued the policy of splitting the Cologne Workers’ Association. He refused to submit to the editorial commission which had been appointed at the committee meeting of the Cologne Workers’ Association on January 15 and consisted of Schapper, Röser and Reiff; therefore the committee meeting of January 29 resolved that the Freiheit, Arbeit could not be regarded as the Association’s newspaper and that the Freiheit Brüderlichkeit, Arbeit should resume publication; Christian Joseph Esser was appointed its editor. The Freiheit Brüderlichkeit, Arbeit reappeared on February 8 and continued publication up to the middle of 1849. The Freiheit, Arbeit continued to appear until June 17, 1849. It sharply attacked Marx and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung’s editorial board and published various malicious insinuations against them.
392 After December 23, when the members of the Cologne Workers’ Association, Anneke, Esser and Gottschalk, were acquitted, the last-named tried to keep aloof from the Association (at first he went to Bonn, and later to Paris and Brussels); at the same time, he endeavoured, through his associates, to cause a split in the ranks of the organisation and again impose a sectarian policy on it. in a statement written in Brussels on January 9, 1849, and published in the Freiheit, Arbeit on January 18, Gottschalk explained his “voluntary exile” by the fact that, despite the acquittal, many of his fellow citizens remained convinced of his guilt. He declared that he would come back only “at the call of the hitherto supreme arbiter in the country” (an allusion to Frederick William IV) or “at the call of his fellow citizens”. For an appraisal of this ambiguous statement see the decision of Branch No. 1 of the Cologne Workers’ Association (present edition, Vol. 9).
393 According to the decree of December 5, 1848, the elections of electors were fixed for January 22, and the election of deputies to the Second Chamber of the Prussian Diet for February 5, 1849.
394 The Democratic Society in Cologne was set up in April 1848; it included workers and artisans as well as small businessmen. Marx, Engels and other editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung who directed the Society’s activity wanted to orientate it towards a resolute struggle against the counter-revolutionary policy of the Prussian ruling circles and exposure of the liberal bourgeoisie’s policy of agreement. In April 1849, Marx and his followers, who had practically begun to organise an independent mass proletarian party, considered it best to dissociate themselves from the petty-bourgeois democrats and withdrew from the Democratic Society. Meanwhile they continued to support the revolutionary actions of the German democratic forces.
395 The passport which Engels produced to obtain a residence permit for the canton of Berne was issued by the Government of the French Republic on March 30, 1848. At that time Marx and Engels were preparing to go to Germany, intending to take a direct part in the German revolution. On April 6 they left Paris for their native country.
396 Lieutenants Adamski and Niethake took part in the September events in Cologne and in November 1848 were elected to the People’s Committee (see Note 384). When the threat of arrest arose, they fled to Belgium, but were arrested, there and deported to France. On December 14, after their voluntary return to Germany, they were court-martialled. On May 29, 1849, the court martial deprived Adamski of his commission and sentenced him to nine months’ imprisonment in a fortress.
397 The banquet in Mülheim on the Rhine described here was one of the first democratic banquets arranged in the Rhine Province to mark the anniversaries of the February revolution in France and the March revolution in Germany. Considering these banquets as a form of revolutionary education of the masses, Marx and Engels took part in some of them.
398 The new Statute of the Cologne Workers’ Association was adopted on February 25, 1849. According to it, the Association’s main task was to raise the workers’ class and political consciousness and it was to be built not on the guild principle as before, but on a territorial basis; consistent democratisation was to apply in the internal life of the organisation, and simultaneously the authority of its elected leading body — the Committee — was to increase. Nine branches were set up as planned. All this contributed to extend popular support for the Association and to enhance its political influence.
399 See Note 127.
400 See Note 75.
401 After the flight of Grand Duke Leopold 11 on January 31, 1849, and the establishment on February 8 of the radical Government (triumvirate) consisting of Guerazzi, Montagnelli and Mazzini, the movement for a republic and unity with the Roman Republic intensified in Tuscany. The radicals regarded this as the beginning of a democratic achievement of Italian unity. On February 18, 1849, a public meeting in Florence proclaimed the foundation of a Tuscan republic. However, under pressure from the liberals and moderate democrats the Guerazzi Government postponed the formal proclamation of the republic until the convocation of the Tuscan Constituent Assembly. As moderate elements dominated the Assembly, the triumvirate again postponed the establishment of a republic on March 27, 1849. The republic had not yet been officially proclaimed when a counter-revolutionary revolt on April 11, 1849, brought Leopold II back to power. Guerazzi’s policy of yielding to pressure from the moderates also upset the plan for uniting Tuscany with the Roman Republic.
402 On his arrival in Cologne on April 11, 1848, Marx, who was compelled to renounce his Prussian citizenship in 1845, petitioned the Cologne City Council to grant him the right of citizenship and received a favourable reply. But this decision had to be confirmed by the royal provincial government, which early in August 1848, after four months of delay, informed Marx that his petition had been turned down. Marx lodged a complaint with the Minister of the Interior, Kühlwetter, but on September 12, 1848, the latter confirmed the decision of the provincial government (see present edition, Vol. 7, p. 581). Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Though the campaign of protest prevented the reactionaries from immediately carrying out all their intentions towards the editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the threat of expulsion from Prussia as a foreigner hovered over him. Later the Prussian Government expelled Marx from Prussia under the pretext that he “had abused hospitality”. Due to this act and repressions against other editors, the newspaper ceased publication in May 1849.
403 On February 27, 1849, the Kölnische Zeitung carried a report on the banquet of February 24. The item said in particular: “Deputy Gladbach especially distinguished himself among the orators by his thunderous speeches against the House of Hohenzollern, Count Brandenburg and others.”
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