Marx and Engels in Neue Rheinische Zeitung July 1848

The Armistice “Negotiations”

Source: MECW Volume 7, p. 270;
Written: by Engels on or about July 23, 1848;
First published: in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 54, July 24, 1848.

The armistice has still neither been signed nor definitively rejected. Reports both from Wrangel’s headquarters and from Copenhagen continually contradict one another. All that is certain is that Wrangel initially refused to sign, that Mr. Reedtz returned to Copenhagen with this refusal and that as a result fresh troops were embarked for Jutland from the 15th July onwards. The Börsen-Halle says that on receiving the news of another three-day cease-fire the English and Swedish ambassadors, together with Mr. Reedtz, left Copenhagen for Kolding. They are said to be joining General Neumann, who has been sent there from Berlin, in an attempt to overcome Wrangel’s opposition.

All this news reaches us via Copenhagen, while from Berlin and from Wrangel’s headquarters we hear nothing but empty rumours. Our present constitutional right of access to information is in this sense no different from the old mystery-mongering. We read of the things which concern us most closely in the newspapers of countries furthest away from us.

According to a letter in the Faedreland the jutes have reacted fairly peacefully to the German invasion.