er
middle-class. I think the people will not endure more than one more
crisis. The next one, in 1846 or 1847, will probably bring with it the
repeal of the Corn Laws {296} and the enactment of the Charter. What
revolutionary movements the Charter may give rise to remains to be seen.
But, by the time of the next following crisis, which, according to the
analogy of its predecessors, must break out in 1852 or 1853, unless
delayed perhaps by the repeal of the Corn Laws or hastened by other
influences, such as foreign competition--by the time this crisis arrives,
the English people will have had enough of being plundered by the
capitalists and left to starve when the capitalists no longer require
their services. If, up to that time, the English bourgeoisie does not
pause to reflect--and to all appearance it certainly will not do so--a
revolution will follow with which none hitherto known can be compared.
The proletarians, driven to despair, will seize the torch which Stephens
has preached to them; the vengeance of the people will come down with a
wrath of which the rage of 1793 gives no true idea. The war of the poor
against the rich will be the bloodiest ever waged. Even the union of a
part of the bourgeoisie with the proletariat, even a general reform of
the bourgeoisie, would not help matters. Besides, the change of heart of
the bourgeoisie could only go as far as a lukewarm _juste-milieu_; the
more determined, uniting with the workers, would only form a new Gironde,
and succumb in the course of the mighty development. The prejudices of a
whole class cannot be laid aside like an old coat: least of all, those of
the stable, narrow, selfish English bourgeoisie. These are all
inferences which may be drawn with the greatest certainty: conclusions,
the premises for which are undeniable facts, partly of historical
development, partly facts inherent in human nature. Prophecy is nowhere
so easy as in England, where all the component elements of society are
clearly defined and sharply separated. The revolution must come; it is
already too late to bring about a peaceful solution; but it can be made
more gentle than that prophesied in the foregoing pages. This depends,
however, more upon the development of the proletariat than upon that of
the bourgeoisie. In proportion, as the proletariat absorbs socialistic
and communistic elements, will the revolution diminish in bloodshed,
revenge, and savagery. Communism stands, in