Page:Friedrich Engels - The Revolutionary Act - tr. Henry Kuhn (1922).pdf/15

 the first three articles (published in the January-March issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, "Politico-economic Review," Hamburg, 1850) the expectation of an early renewed upward turn of revolutionary energy is still looked for, the historic review, written by Marx and myself, and published in the final double number—May-October—which appeared in the autumn of 1850, breaks once for all with these illusions: "A new revolution is possible only as the consequence of a new crisis. And it is also as certain as the latter." But that was really the only essential change that had to be made. As to the interpretation of events, given in former parts, as well as the causal connections therein set forth, absolutely nothing had to be changed, as is shown by the continuation of the review covering the period from March 10 down to the autumn of 1850. This continuation I have included as the fourth article in the present edition.

The second test was still harder. Immediately after Louis Bonaparte's coup d'état of December 2, 1851, Marx worked anew upon the history of France from February, 1848, down to the aforesaid event which, for the time being, terminated the revolutionary period. ("The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte." Third Edition, Meissner, Hamburg, 1885.) In this brochure is treated once more, though more briefly, the period dealt with in our joint review. Compare this second presentation, written in the light of a decisive event that occurred more than a year later, with ours,