MARX TO ADOLF CLUSS[1]
IN WASHINGTON
Manchester, [before 26 June 1852]
... Napoleon II[2] is getting into more and more of a scrape. Apart from his other new taxes, the jackass has got caught up in the same snare as the provisional government,[3] —that is, by imposing a new tax on the peasants; an increase of 25% on the existing succession duty and the CONVEYANCE OF LANDED PROPERTY. He is moving quickly. True socialism is being achieved by a most fatuous acceptance, if not an intensification of, the old French financial procedures...
- ↑ All that has survived from this letter is a short extract quoted by Cluss in his letter to Weydemeyer of 13 July 1852. The following passage from Cluss' letter may give an idea of what Marx wrote in the non-extant part of his letter: 'A few days ago Marx wrote in haste some more lines from Manchester promising details next week. He has only 3 copies of Brumaire left. ' "The history of the war between mice and frogs" [i.e. the pamphlet The Great Men of the Exile] (the first notebook up to Kinkel's departure to America) will appear anonymously. Marx regrets that he has to interrupt his studies in order to "clear the cesspool". Nevertheless, I think this is very good because it will protect the next revolution to some degree against this joint swindler company. In Marx's opinion, the whole thing is done in a very lively way and will come to us as soon as it is printed. He authorises us, if we think it economically and politically viable, to have it published in America. Think this over for a while.'
- ↑ Napoleon III, whom Marx ironically calls 'the second'.
- ↑ Marx refers here to the French Provisional Government's decree of 16 March 1848 which added an extra 45 centimes to every franc of direct taxes levied on landowners (land tax, taxes on movable property, windows and doors, patents). The tax became a new burden mainly for small peasants and caused them to join the opposition to the Second French Republic