Page:Karl Marx The Man and His Work.pdf/31

Rh discard entirely the mediocre scholastic junk of the old almanachs with the end in view of uniting ourselves with prominent Frenchmen like Leroux, Proudhon, Louis Blanc, may be Lamartine—Lammendis and Cormenin are probably neither procurable or usable—to such an extent, as to have them directly contribute to the journal (French can be read by everybody) and also to function on the editorial board. The title and prospect we will then issue together, and thus suddenly set up the intellectual alliance of these two nations." The first and last copy of the "German French Annals" appeared in March, 1844, as a double number; it consisted of 236 pages, and contained contributions from Marx, Engels, Ruge, Heine, Bakunin, Herwegh, Feuerbach and several others. A series of causes is responsible for the early failure of this most creditable venture. First the financial resources of the undertaking were insufficient and practically consumed in the publication of the first issue. Secondly, the conditions in Germany were not conducive to the life and development of the periodical. In Germany its circulation was forbidden, and the smuggling of the books over the border was attended with heavy costs and ungratifying difficulties. Neither did the collaboration of the French writers, as anticipated and solicited, materialize. Finally the break and everlasting disagreement of Marx with Ruge was a tributary cause which aided in undermining the young life of the periodical. Marx, who through his historic philosophical conception was daily creating a wider gulf between himself and his associates, was unable to accept or subscribe to the views of Ruge on many important topics, until these differences culminated into an open quarrel that finally led to a severance of connections. These tempestuous days of strife and uncertainty reached their climax, when in 1845 Marx was expelled from Paris by the liberal government of that fossilized citizen-king, Louis Phillipe. Behind this act the untiring efforts of the Prussian government were plainly visible: a government which in this surreptitious manner sought to gratify its base lust for revenge on the hated and much feared revolutionist.