Revolutionary Spain. Ninth Article (1854, manuscript fragment)

Transcription with doubtful readings: 88 of the 1278 words of the text that remains after the deletions (6.9 %) are marked as uncertain ([?]) or illegible ([ilegible]), and each of them is explained in a note. Manuscript by Karl Marx, autumn 1854, intended as the ninth article of the series «Revolutionary Spain» for the New-York Daily Tribune, which did not print it; kept at the IISG, Amsterdam (Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels Papers, inv. A 37, «[Über die Spanische Revolution 1820-1823], 1854, englisch», images 2-4). What survives are the pages numbered 3, 4 and 5 by Marx; the beginning of the article is missing. Transcribed from the digital facsimile by the Escuela de marxismo, 2026, by two independent readings collated with each other and, line by line, with the enlarged image; wherever the two readings differ and the image does not decide, the word is marked [?] and the note gives the other reading. The draft is small and heavily corrected: long deletions that cannot be read are given as [ilegible] (one mark per word, estimated) and are not counted above. The eight articles printed in the Tribune are on our site: Revolutionary Spain. Nothing has been completed from other editions. Diplomatic transcription: spelling and punctuation of the manuscript; underlining in italics; deletions as text; additions above the line or in the margin in their place, with a note; [?] after an uncertain reading, [ilegible] for a word that cannot be read. Traducción al español

hour¹ of revolution. the troops the army of Ballesteros² [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible], which, since the³ [ilegible] capitulation of Morillo[?]⁴ [ilegible] stole concentrated in the neighbourhood [ilegible] of Malaga at Priego, 10 leagues north of Malaga. On the his[?]⁵ [ilegible] return Cadiz⁶ expedition from Cadiz he [ilegible] was made a prisoner by one of General Molitor's corps. delivered [ilegible] up to the [ilegible] surrendered by the apostolical band, and sent to Madrid and there to be beheaded[?] garroted⁷ on the 7th September November [ilegible] four days before Ferdinand's return to the capital. "Non por su culpa paga⁸ Riego: Traicion D'un vil Borbon!" (Not by his fault fell Riego but by the treason of a vile Bourbon) When [ilegible] Ferdinand VII on his arrival at Madrid was waited upon⁹ and congratulated by the Officers of¹⁰ the Bands of the Faith [ilegible] read enslaved and a curtain[?] they having[?] been[?] thrown[?] by[?]¹¹ after they had [ilegible] [ilegible] present [ilegible] passed[?]¹² embraced¹³ in the midst of his court: "It is the same dogs but with different collars."¹⁴ The Templarios[?]¹⁵ friars[?]¹⁶ who [ilegible] mounted [ilegible] [ilegible] in 1822 [ilegible] stood[?]¹⁷ mustered 16,310 [ilegible] [ilegible] in 1830 amounted¹⁸ [ilegible] to¹⁹ to 61,727.²⁰ [ilegible] of²¹ revenue[?]²² of[?]²³ 45,414[?]²⁴ [ilegible] in the course of 8 years. From the Madrid Gaceta we see that only in the single month from the 24th August to the 24th Sept. 1824, 1200 persons were shot, hanged, and quartered, and then the shooting barbarous decree of Oct. [ilegible] against Comuneros[?],²⁵ Freemasons etc had not yet appeared been[?]²⁶ [ilegible].²⁷ The s[?]²⁸ suppression of the military[?] schools were suppressed and the & the university of Sevilla was[?]²⁹ closed for years. [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] but in[?] its stead³⁰ a governmental³¹ school for of bullfighting was established of that same place, by by. [ilegible] books[?]³² [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] the second [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] Considering[?]³³ the second[?]³⁴ restauration[?]³⁵ of, [ilegible] a [ilegible] Frederick the Great conversing with his [ilegible] minister, asked him, which country in Europe he thought most³⁶ difficult to rule? Perceiving the minister to be rather embarrassed, he answered for him: "It[?]³⁷ is[?]³⁸ Spain: and[?]³⁹ a [ilegible] Spain the great the own government has[?]⁴⁰ for many years endeavoured to ruin it, but all in vain." [ilegible] of the former [ilegible] Frederick the great seems to have prognosticated the Ferdinand VII the reign of⁴¹ Ferdinand VII. The failure of the Revolution of 1820-3 is easily accounted for. It was a middleclass revolution and, more especially, a town revolution, while the campaigns[?] Country⁴², ignorant, lazy, wedded to the pompous ceremonies of the Church, remained passive observers⁴³ of the party strife they did hardly understand. rather it In the few⁴⁴ provinces where⁴⁵ they exceptionally stood in the took an active⁴⁶ a [ilegible] [ilegible] share in the [ilegible] struggle, it was rather on the side of the an expected element of the antiquated [ilegible] class Counterrevolution, - a fact not to be wondered at in Spain, "that storehouse of ancient customs, that repository of all, elsewhere forgotten and past by, in a[?]⁴⁷ country where during the war of independence peasants were seen armed[?] with using spears taken from the armory of the Alhambra and armed with halberds and pikes of curious and ancient workmanship, which had been wielded in the wars of the 15th century. Besides there [ilegible] the present, poor [ilegible] Besides, it[?]⁴⁸ is a necessity of Spain feature peculiar to Spain that the, every peasant who had a noble escutcheon [ilegible] in stone [ilegible] over the door of his miserable cabin, thought considered himself a nobleman and [ilegible] that the⁴⁹ the country people (generally), tho' poor and plundered as ever [ilegible] on ancient Europe, did never groan under that consciousness of abject⁵⁰ degradation which [ilegible] & fretted[?]⁵¹ [ilegible] exasperated⁵² them in the [ilegible]⁵³ [ilegible] rest of feudal Europe. That the the revolution was as well That the revolutionary party if did not [ilegible] know to create link interests⁵⁴ [ilegible] the peasantry [ilegible] to the [ilegible] local [ilegible] town movement⁵⁵ is avowed by two men both of whom, [ilegible] [ilegible]⁵⁶ [ilegible] acted a principal part in the Revolution although, by General Morillo and by Sanmiguel. Morillo,⁵⁷ who cannot be suspected of revolutionary sympathies, wrote to from Galicia⁵⁸ to the Duke of Angoulême: "If the Cortes had embraced the bill on the seignorial rights, and thus[?]⁵⁹ despoiled[?]⁶⁰ the great grandees of their properties, in favour of the multitude,⁶¹ Your Highness would have encountered numerous and formidable⁶² of[?]⁶³ patriotic[?]⁶⁴ armies, which would have organized themselves, as they did in France, under similar circumstances." On the other hand San Miguel (see his "Outlines⁶⁵ of Spain. Madrid 1836) [ilegible] tells us: "The greatest error of the liberals consisted in [ilegible] their not considering that by far the majority of the nation were indifferent or hostile to the new laws. The numerous decrees⁶⁶ [ilegible] published by the Cortes for ameliorating with a view to ameliorating the material condition of the people, were unable to produce so rapidly the immediate results as were required by the circumstances. Neither the abolition of half the tithes, nor the sale of the monastic estates, contributed to ameliorating the [ilegible] material condition of the lower agricultural classes.⁶⁷ The last measure, on the contrary, by throwing the land out of the hands of the indulgent [ilegible] monks into those of [ilegible] calculating⁶⁸ capitalists, impaired the position of the old farmers by [ilegible] by [ilegible] producing causing higher⁶⁹ [ilegible] rents to be imposed upon them, so that the superstition of the [ilegible] numerous clergy, already [ilegible] [ilegible]⁷⁰ by the alienation of the sanctified patrimony, [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] became exaggerated by the suggestions of material interests." The revolutionary party The revolutionary townpopulation [ilegible] arrived[?]⁷¹ they estranged from the mass of the nation were therefore forced, in their struggle with the Grandees, the clergy[?]⁷²,⁷³ & the[?]⁷⁴ monastic[?]⁷⁵ power and the crown which represented all these antiquated [ilegible] elements of society, to depend altogether on the army and of itself.⁷⁶ the support [ilegible] of The [ilegible] position thus occupied by the army in the revolutionary camp[?]⁷⁷ except[?],⁷⁸ [ilegible] together with⁷⁹ its isolation from the masses of the⁸⁰ [ilegible] [ilegible] another hand made it an [ilegible] instrument dangerous for the bands that wielded it, but no blessing⁸¹ to the enemy it was to strike. Finally, that on the inner[?]⁸² [ilegible] of⁸³ the Middleclass, the socalled Moderados, ([ilegible] at first [ilegible] got soon became[?] soon⁸⁴) lukewarm and to [ilegible] and the [ilegible] the⁸⁵ traitors to⁸⁶ the Revolution Growth[?] of[?] the[?]⁸⁷,⁸⁸ lulling themselves, as they did, into the hope of [ilegible] getting⁸⁹ their reign established by means of the the[?]⁹⁰ French invasion. towns and thus [ilegible] enjoying⁹¹ the fruits of [ilegible] the a new society without years-history[?] and⁹² without partaking therewith admitting⁹³ the plebeians to⁹⁴ [ilegible] without participate in them. The positive results[?]⁹⁵ [ilegible] of the Revolution of 1820-3 were not limited to the great fermentation which expanded the minds and⁹⁶ of Spain which The greatest [ilegible] [ilegible] on record[?]⁹⁷ local[?] metamorphosed renewed⁹⁸ one the⁹⁹ aspect character[?] of¹⁰⁰ of the of¹⁰¹ some[?]¹⁰² large¹⁰³ bodies of the nation. It greatly [ilegible] restoration Ist[?]¹⁰⁴,¹⁰⁵ in which the antiquated [ilegible] elements of Spanish society [ilegible] such stages as to become insupportable [ilegible] and incompatible with the national[?]¹⁰⁶ [ilegible] existence of Spain, was itself a product of the revolutionary Revolution Revolution. Its principal work was the to push whet[?]¹⁰⁷ the antagonism to such a point¹⁰⁸ degree as to make all compromise impossible and a war to the knife inevitable. [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] the [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] According to Lord Liverpool himself, there never was an extensive political change attended with less violence or bloodshed¹⁰⁹ than the Spanish Revolution during 1820-3[?],¹¹⁰ the revolution civil war¹¹¹ of 1833-43 [ilegible] [ilegible] we[?] behold[?]¹¹² [ilegible]¹¹³ therefore[?],¹¹⁴ war[?]¹¹⁵ of 1833-43[?]¹¹⁶ exterminating the feudal and monastic antiquated¹¹⁷ [ilegible] elements of Spain-society[?],¹¹⁸ - We the feudal and [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] with fire and sword and [ilegible] disgracing itself[?]¹¹⁹ by acts of vandalism[?],¹²⁰ we[?]¹²¹ [ilegible] must[?]¹²² not[?]¹²³ beget[?] that [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] attribute the [ilegible] savage[?]¹²⁴ features [ilegible]¹²⁵ of that epoch to the peculiar character of the Spanish race, but to the same force of circumstances that imposed upon France the reign of terrorism. [ilegible] & [ilegible]¹²⁶ The French centralized and, therefore, abbreviated the reign of terrorism, the Spaniards, have[?]¹²⁷ to their traditions, decentralized and, therefore consequently, procrastinated it. The Revolt of 1820-3 had shown That the town population [ilegible] [ilegible] needed more natural force Conforming to Spain[?]¹²⁸ tradition, the old between the [ilegible] [ilegible] arrogant revolutionary party was unable to not likely to make a[?]¹²⁹ revolution[?]¹³⁰ by subverting the throne. & What was [ilegible] wanted for them was the Revo with them¹³¹ To be successful, It then the Revolution itself [ilegible] forced obliged needed¹³² to appear as a Competitor for the throne. The struggle of the society party society that [ilegible] and the society that antagonistic two societies ought to assume the form of a struggle of dynastic contending dynasties [ilegible] opposite dynastic interests. The Spain of the 19th century of the 19th century. [ilegible] at ease did her revolution with ease, when she was allowed to give¹³³ it a [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] the form of her own dynastic [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] the civil war of the XIV[?]th¹³⁴ century. It was Ferdinand the seventh who¹³⁵ gave the revolutionary to the Revolution a¹³⁶ party a royal name - that of Isabella [ilegible] the only three years [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] a [ilegible] [ilegible] & [ilegible] [ilegible]¹³⁷ - while he bequeathed[?]¹³⁸ to the [ilegible] Counterrevolution¹³⁹ his brother Don Carlos [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] the Don Quixote[?]¹⁴⁰ of the [ilegible] [ilegible] Holy[?] Inquisition[?]¹⁴¹ [ilegible] Autodafé[?]¹⁴² Don Carlos. Ferdinand VII [ilegible] [ilegible] [ilegible] & proved Ferdinand VII proved true to his character to the end. If he had so often During his whole life he had¹⁴³ cheated the Liberals [ilegible] by false promises, should he not indulge the sport of¹⁴⁴ cheating the serviles[?]¹⁴⁵ on his deathbed? As to religious matters, he had always been a sceptic. He could not persuade [ilegible] was unable to¹⁴⁶ convince¹⁴⁷ himself that any one should speak truth - not even the [ilegible] gospel¹⁴⁸. If he believed in the gospels, he thought it a any one - even the whole[?]¹⁴⁹ ghost - should be so silly as to speak truth the truth. (true[?])¹⁵⁰