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Scattered fragments torn from the tree whose large branches could and ought to shadow the whole European soil—systems have divided and subdivided the parentthought of the future ; they have parted among them the fragments of the flag ; they live an impotent life , each on a word taken from our synthetic formula . We have sects , but no church j incomplete and contradictory philosophies , but no religion—no collective belief rallying the faithful under one single sign , and harmonizing their labours . We are without chiefs , without plan ,
¦ without mot d ' ordre ; detached bodies , it might be supposed , having once belonged to a great army now dissolved by victory . Thanks to ourselves , the victory is yet with our enemies . Triumphant at first upon every point , the peoples turn by turn arisen , fall one by one under the concentration of hostile forces , applauded like the dying gladiator if succumbing bravely , branded if they sink without resistance , but almost always misunderstood , and always rapidly forgotten . They have forgotten Warsaw ; they are forgetting Rome .
It is only through organization that this state of things can cease . The day that shall find us all united , marching together under the eye of the best among us—of those who have fought the most and suffered the most—will be the eve of our victory . On that day we shall have ascertained our forces—we shall know who we are—we shall have the consciousness of our strength . For this there are two great obstacles to surmount , two great errors to destroy : the exaggeration of the rights of individuality , the narrow exclusiveness of theories .
We are not Democracy , we are not humanity ; we are the precursors of Democracy , the van-guard of humanity . Church militant , army destined to conquer the soil on which must be elevated the edifice of the new societywe must not say / , we must learn to saywe . It must be understood that rights are only the result of duties accomplished ; that theory is a dead letter whenever we do not practically translate principles in our everyday acts ; that individuality represents above all a mission
to be fulfilled ; liberty , a means of conscientiously harmonizing our efforts with those of our brothers , of taking rank among the combatants without violation of our personal dignity . Those who , in consequence of their individual susceptibilities , refuse to submit to the small sacrifices which organization and discipline exact , deny , in virtue of the habits of the past , the collective faith they preach . Crushed by the organization of our enemies , they virtually abandon to them all that they dispute to the cause which they have sworn to serve .
Exclusiveness in theories is the negation of the very dogma we profess . Every man who says , I have found political truth , and who makes the adoption of his system a condition of fraternal association , denies the people , the sole progressive interpreter of the world's law , in order to assert only his own individuality ( son moi ) . Every man who pretends by the isolated labour of his own intelligence , however powerful it may be , to discover the definitive solution of the problems which agitate the masses , condemns himself to error by incompleteness , in renouncing one of the eternal sources of truth—the
collective intuition of the people in action . The definitive solution is the secret of victory . Until then , under the influence of the very medium we desire to transform , agitated in spite of ourselves by all the instincts—by all the reactionary feelings of the combat , placed between persecution and the spectacle of egotism given us by a factitious society built upon material interests and mutilated in itsrm > 8 t noble faculties , we can hardly seize what there is of most holy , most vast , and most energetic , in the aspiration of the soul of the Peoples . Drawn from the depth of our cabinets , and from the teachings of
tradition , disinheritedof the power which springs from theory of actuality , from the collective individuality , from the conscience of humanity , our systems cannot be for the most part other than an anatomy of corpses , discovering the evil , analyzing the cause of death , but powerless to perceive or lo comprehend life . Life is the People under emotion , the instinct of multitudes elevated to an exceptional power by contact , by the prophetic feeling of great things to bo accomplished , by spontaneous , sudden ,
electric iiHHociiitiou in the public place ; it is action exciting to the highest all the faculties of hope , devotion , enthusiasm , . ind love , which slumber now , and revealing man in the unity of his nature , in the plenitude of his realizing powers . The grasp of a workman ' s hnml in one of those liistoue moments which initiate an epoch , will , perhaps , tL-, u : h us more of the org uii / . ition of the future than can bo taught to-day by the cold and disheartened work of the intellect , or b y the doctrine of the illustrious dead of two thousand years aim .
Is this saying that we ought to march forward without a banner ? Is it Haying that we would inscribe on our banner only a negation ? It is not upon us that such a suspicion can alight . Men of ihc People long engaged in its strusigles , we do not drenm of leading it toward the void . We march to the realization of equality and association upon this earth . Kvery revolution which is not made for « 11 is to us a lie . Kvery political change which does not aim nt transforming the medium , tho element in which
the individual lives , radically falsifies the educational tendency which alone can render it legitimate . But the starting point and the goal once established , ought we to delay our march , to abdicate our conquest , and let our liberties be one by one taken from us , because all of us are not in accord as to the means which are practically to realize our thought ? Is it not our business rather to
open the great highways of progress for the nations than minutely to assign to them their rations by the way , or to prejudge the detailed propor tions of every building under which they may seek to shelter themselves ? And ought we to submit to lose the ground which has cost U 8 the blood of so many of our heroes , and the tears of our mothers , because we have not altogether explored that which we have yet to conquer ?
We say that this would be at once a crime and a folly . We say that , in presence of the reaction everywhere and at every moment fortifying itself , in presence of the sufferings of the Peoples and the insolence of their masters , beneath the weight of shame which attaches to every violation of right and of hum nature systematically endured , the duty of all those who have given their name to the flag of progress in truth is now to ascertain the territory already conquered by humanity , and the general tendencies which characterize the epoch ; and that it is our duty to organize ourselves , to choose our chiefs , and to march with one common accord to overthrow all obstacles , and to open as rapidly as possible to the great realizer—the People—the way towards the end
which we seek to gain . Let each thinker assiduously and conscientiously pursue his researches and his apostleship in favour of the special solution of which he has had a glimpse , — the emancipated peoples will know how to judge and to choose : but let him not stray from the camp where all his brethren ought to be assembled : let him not divest himself of his active part in the accomplishment of the common mission : let him not desert the revolution
for philosophy , action for solitary thought , Democracy for any democratic system . Man is one ; thought and action ought to be indissolubly united in him . At the end of the day , each of us must be able to ask himself without blushing , not what hast thou thought , but what hast thou done , to-day for the holy cause of truth and eternal justice ? Does this common ground exist ? Yes , it does exist . Surely we have not struggled for nearly a century under the banner of progress , foreseen as the vital law of humanity , without having conquered a series of truths sufficient to establish for us all a rallying sign — a baptism of Fraternity — a basis of
organization . We all believe in the progressive development of human faculties and forces in the direction of the moral law which has been imposed upon us . We believe in association as the only regular means which can attain that end . We believe that the interpretation of the moral law and rule of progress cannot be confided to a caste or to an individual , but ought to be entrusted to the people enlightened by national education , directed by those among them whom virtue and genius point out to them as the best .
We believe in the sacrcdness of both individuality and society , which ought not to be effaced , or to conflict , but to harmonize together for the amelioration of all by all . We believe in Liberty , without which all human responsibility vanishes . In Equality , without which Liberty is only a deception . In Fraternity , without which Liberty and Equality would be only means without an end . In Association , without which Fraternity would be an unrealizable programme .
In Family , City , and Country , as so many progressive spheres in which man ought to grow successively in the knowledge and practice of Liberty , Equality , Fraternity , and Association . We believe in the holiness of labour , in its inviolability , in the property which proceeds from it as its sign and its fruit . We believe in the duty of society to furnish the elements of material labour by credit , of intellectual and moral labour by education . We believe in the du fy of tho individual to make use of them to the utmost extent of his faculties for the common amelioration .
To sum up , we believe in a social state having God and his law at . the summit , the people , tho universality of the citizens , free and equal , at its base , progress for its rule , association as the means , devotion for baptism , genius and virtue for lights upon the way . And that which we belie . ve to be true for a single people , we believe to be true for all . There is but one sun in heaven for the whole earth : there is but one law of truth and justice for oil who people it . Inasmuch its we believe in Liberty , Equality , Fraternity , and Association , for the individuals composing a
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state , we believe also in the Liberty , Equality , Fraternity , and Association of nations . Peoples are the individuals of humanity . Nationality is the sign of their individuality , and the guarantee of their liberty ; it is sacred . Indicated at once by tradition , by language , by a peculiar aptitude , by a special mission to fulfil , it ought to harmonize itself with the whole , and assume its proper functions for the amelioration of all , for the progress of humanity .
We believe that the map , the organization of Europe are to be reconstructed in accordance with these principles . We believe that a pact , a congress of the representatives of all nationalities constituted and recognized , having for mission to bind closer the holy alliance of the Peoples and to formalize the common right and duty , are at the end of all our efforts . We believe , in a word , in a general organization , having God and his law at the summit , humanity , the universality of nations , free and equal , at its base , common progress for its end , alliance for the means , and the example of the most loving and devoted of the peoples to encourage us on the way .
Is there , among us , a sane man who can contest these principles ? Is there , among us , a man so exacting , so exclusive , as to declare that this collection of truths , theoretically conquered , does not afford a base advanced enough , and sufficiently defined to place thereon , —with every reserve of independence as to the elaboration of special solutions , —a common organization , having for its object to labour actively for their practical realization , for the emancipation of the People and of the Peoples ? We have not now to say what this organization should be . It suffices to-day for us to establish its urgency and possibility . We do not put forth a programme ; we make an appeal . To all men who share our faith : —
To all the Peoples who have a nationality to conquer : — To all those who think that every divorce , even for a time , between thought and action , is fatal : — To all those who feel stirring within their hearts a holy indignation against the display of brute force in . Europe in the service of tyranny and falsehood : — We say—come to us ! Sacrifice to the one great object your secondary disagreements , and rally yourselves upon the ground we now point out to you .
The question is to establish European democracy ; to found the budget , the treasury of the Peoples ; to organize the army of initiators . The emancipated Peoples will do the rest . For ourselves , we are to-day in their name upon the breach . Grasp hands with us , and to the combat ! London , July 22 , 1850 . For the Central European Democratic Committee : Ledbu Roxlin . Joseph Mazzini . Ai / bert Dakasz , ( Delegate of the Polish Democratic Centralization . ) Arnold Ruge , ( Member of the National Assembly at Frankfort . )
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The present situation of some of the men who figured as the principal leaders in the revolution of February shows the instability of all human grandeur . A provincial journal says that Citizen Flocon , from being a member of the Provisional Government , is now the editor of a Socialist paper in an obscure corner of the department of the North ; and that Armand Marrast , commonly called " Le Marquis de la R 6 publique , " in vain solicited a similar post left vacant by the death of the editor of the Echo de Vesove . M . Proudhon has written to the responsible editor of the Peuple to say that the police having taken umbrage at his work , announced under the name of Pratique lievolutionnairc , the publication of it remains postponed lor the present .
The director of the journal Le Peuple and M . Favre , one of the editors , were sentenced on Monday , by the Assize Court of Paris to three years' imprisonment each and 6000 f . fine , the one for signing and the other for publishing an article exciting the citizens to hatred and contempt of each other , outraging public morals and religion , and exciting to civil war . Six French journals , the Sii-clo , the National , the Corsaire , the Assemblee Nationale , the Gazette de France , and the Evenement , are under prosecution for contraventions of the law relative to the signature of articles .
The Paris Univcrs is to be prosecuted for a violation of the new press regulations . This makes the ninth journal that the Attorney-General has proceeded against for an infraction of the law . The authors of the articles summoned appeared before the Court of Correctional Police on Wednesday , and denied the competency of that tribunal to hear the matter . The court , however , overruled the objection , and fixed Friday ( yesterday ) to try the cases upon their merits . ICossuth is said to be ill in Kutayeh , from a dangerous fever . The Kossuth bank-notes still make their appearance here and there . Two individuals were arrested
three days ago for having several m their possession . The widow of Count Louis Batthyany has returned to Hungary , to endeavour to obtain her dowry from the confiscated estates of her husband . The countess , who belongs to the wealthy family of Zichy , claims no le > s than 7 , 000 , 000 florins . As soon as the matter is decided she will return to Switzerland .
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680 ©| J £ $ Le& 1 t $ t + [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 12, 1850, page 680, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1856/page/8/
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