E. S. Beesly and Karl Marx

Royden Harrison

doi:10.1017/S0020859000001358

E. S. Beesly and Karl Marx

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008

Royden Harrison

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Beesly was not only friendly with Marx, but was well acquainted with his circle. He knew Lafargue, he got to know Engels, and there were mutual acquaintances, such as Eugene Oswald. Among workmen, he was not only the friend of Odger, Applegarth and Lucraft, but was on close terms with such working-class confidants of Marx as Jung and Eccarius, and to a lesser extent with Dupont. In the sixties he was a familiar figure, not only in the offices of the Carpenters and Joiners, the London Trades Council or the Bee-Hive, but was also at home in the “Golden Ball” where the most radical of London's workmen talked with continental revolutionaries over a clay pipe and a pot of beer. Here one could get the flavour of European proletarian politics: that other “World of Labour” in whose ideals Beesly was as deeply interested as he was in those of English trades unionism. Indeed, for many years he expressed his desire for the amalgamation of trade unionism – with its implicit recognition of the priority of social questions—, and proletarian republicanism – with its generous enthusiasm and its larger view.

Type: Research Article
Information: International Review of Social History , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , August 1959 , pp. 208 - 238

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000001358 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1959

References

^{page 208 note 1} Oswald, E., Reminiscences of a Busy Life, London 1911, pp. 455–460.Google Scholar

^{page 208 note 2} Marginal notes by E. S. Beesly on his copy of Onslow Yorke's Secret History of the I.W.M.A., in the possession of Mr. Alfred Beesly.

^{page 209 note 1} Harrison, F., The Revolution of the Commune, in: The Fortnightly Review, May 1871.Google Scholar

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^{page 209 note 4} Parisian Positivist placard, 18 Nov. 1870. (ibid.)

^{page 209 note 5} Placard by Sémerie, E., 6 Feb. 1871.Google Scholar

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^{page 210 note 2} Beesly, E. S., Rochefort, in: The Birmingham Weekly Post, 22 Jan. 1870Google Scholar, and on Maxse in: The Positivist Review, Aug. 1899.

^{page 210 note 3} Beesly, E. S., Professor Beesly on the Fall of Paris, in: The Bee-Hive, 27 May 1871.Google Scholar

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^{page 211 note 2} Remarks by Boon, M. J., Minutes of General Council, 31 Jan. 1871Google Scholar. (I.I.S.H.)

^{page 211 note 3} The Mansion House Committee. The Bee-Hive, 8 Apr. 1871.

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^{page 212 note 2} Our Own Reds, in: The Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Apr. 1871.

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^{page 213 note 1} The learned and logical Professor Beesly, , in: Punch, 9 Dec. 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 213 note 2} Marx, Karl to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, 30 June 1871Google Scholar. Published in The Eastern Post, 8 July 1871. (See Marx' explanation in his letter to Kugelmann, , 27 July 1871.)Google Scholar

^{page 213 note 3} Beesly-Greenwood, correspondence: The Bee-Hive, 28 Oct. 1871Google Scholar and The Eastern Post, 4 Nov. 1871.

^{page 213 note 4} Marx, to Beesly, , 19 Oct. 1871Google Scholar. (Photostatic copy of letter in possession of Mr. Alfred Beesly.)

^{page 213 note 5} Marx, to Beesly, , 12 June 1871Google Scholar. (Sel.Corr. Torr.)

^{page 214 note 1} Beesly, to Marx, , 17 June 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 214 note 2} See eight articles by Beesly in The Eastern Post between 8 July 1871 and 26 Aug. 1871.

^{page 214 note 3} From Johannes Miquel, not Lothar Bücher [sic] as asserted by Torr, D. (Sel. Corr. Torr, p. 314)Google Scholar. The impression created by Marx was that fear of blackmail and not personal friendship explained how he got information from Bismarck's “right-hand” man.

^{page 214 note 4} Beesly, to Marx, , 12 June 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 215 note 1} Beesly, to Marx, , 13 June 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 215 note 2} Beesly, E.S., The Communists, in: The Bee-Hive, 29 Apr. 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 1} See particularly, Bridges, J. H., The Late Commune of Paris; and Dr. Bridges on the Commune of Paris, 22 and 8 July 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 2} “A French Positivist”: Political Notes on the present Situation of France and Paris, with an introductory note by E. S. Beesly. — The identity of the author is established by comparing the letters in the pamphlet with the obituary note on Robinet by Bridges, J. H. in The Positivist Review, Dec. 1899.Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 3} Congreve to Edger, Henry, 22 June 1871Google Scholar. (MA.C.)

^{page 217 note 1} Compare Marx, The Civil War in France, penultimate paragraph, with “Political Notes…,” Letters 1 and 3.

^{page 217 note 2} Beesly, to Marx, , 17 June 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 218 note 1} Prenant, , Lucy, , Marx, Karl et Auguste Comte, in: A la Lumière du Marxisme, Tome II (Paris 1957), p. 73.Google Scholar

^{page 218 note 2} Rutson, A., to Beesly, and Beesly, to Marx, , 5 July 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 218 note 3} Beesly confronted Alexander Macdonald with information relating to negotiations in the Home Office concerning the Mines Regulation Bill of 1872. See his charges in The Bee-Hive, 24 Aug. 1872. The Home Secretary was disgusted with Macdonald and probably welcomed these disclosures. Bruce, H. A., Letters of Lord Aberdare, Vol. I (printed for private circulation).

^{page 219 note 1} One conjectures that the letter referred to was by Tom Smith, a Nottingham workman and member of the International. He wrote a series of letters on the Commune in the Nottingham Daily Express which were subsequently published in a widely discussed pamphlet entitled “The Law of the Revolution” upon which J. S. Mill and others passed judgment. This is probably the only work by an Englishman which will stand comparison as a defence of the Commune with the articles by the Positivists.

^{page 219 note 2} Robert, , third Marquis of Salisbury, 1830–1903Google Scholar, four times Prime Minister of Conservative Governments. The opinions attributed to him by Beesly are in character. (Life: by his daughter, Lady Cecil).

^{page 219 note 3} Gould, F. J., Hyndman, H. M.: Prophet of Socialism, London 1928, p. 51Google Scholar. (Gould was both a Positivist and a Socialist.)

^{page 220 note 1} Beesly, to Marx, , 27 July 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 220 note 2} Crompton, H., to Geddes, J., 14 May 1878Google Scholar. (P.A.B.M.)

^{page 220 note 3} Beesly, to Marx, , 10 June 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 221 note 1} Beesly, E. S., Professor Beesly on the Paris Massacres, in: The Bee-Hive, 3 June 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 221 note 2} Congreve to Lobb (undated). (Congreve Collection, Wadham.)

^{page 221 note 3} Lyons, Lord to the Granville, Earl, 17 May 1872Google Scholar. (Home Office Papers. Public Records Office. (H.O. 45. 11335/14 & 15.)

^{page 221 note 4} The Law Officers of the Crown to the Home Secretary, 31 May 1872 (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11335/22.)

^{page 221 note 5} Lyons, Lord Despatch (No 653) to Earl Granville, 24 May 1872. (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11335/19.)—Records protests.Google Scholar

^{page 222 note 1} Official translation of letter by the French Foreign Minister to the English Ambassador, 18 March 1872. (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11535/4.)

^{page 222 note 2} Memo of 24 Apr. 1872 by the Home Secretary to the Solicitor of the Treasury asking him to obtain an opinion from the Law Officers of the Crown as to whether the banishment of Fenian Prisoners “and the payment of their passage to the several places to which they elected to go, could be used by the French Government as a justification of their proceedings….” (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11335/10.)

^{page 222 note 3} Lyons, Lord to the French Foreign Minister, 12 Apr. 1872Google Scholar. (Home Office Papers. H.O.45.11335/17.)

^{page 222 note 4} Lyons, Lord reports to Earl Granville, 27 May 1872Google Scholar. (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11335/20.)

^{page 222 note 5} Memorandum for the French Government on British experience of Transportation drawn up by Major Du Cane, Surveyor General of Prisons. (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11335/31.) This was acknowledged with thanks by Rémusat in a letter to Lyons. (Home Office Papers. H.O. 45. 11335/31 & 32.)

^{page 223 note 1} Harrison, F., to Mundella, , 29 Dec. 1871Google Scholar. (Mundella Collection, Sheffield University Library.)

^{page 223 note 2} Beesly, to Marx, , 12 Dec. 1871Google Scholar. (M.E.L.I.) – La Cecilia shared military command with Dombrowski and Wroblewski.

^{page 223 note 3} Wroblewski, W.: 1836–1908Google Scholar. Talented strategist and Communard Commander in Chief.

^{page 223 note 4} Beesly, to Marx, , 22 Dec. 1871Google Scholar. (ibid.)

^{page 223 note 5} Beesly, to Marx, , 22 Dec. 1871Google Scholar (a further letter). (M.E.L.I.)

^{page 223 note 6} Beesly, to Marx, , 6 Jan. 1872Google Scholar. (ibid.)

^{page 224 note 1} Beesly, to Marx, , 5 Febr. 1872Google Scholar. (ibid.) – Edward Dicey had been a contributor to the Fortnightly Review, foreign correspondent for the Telegraph and, for three months editor of the Daily News before moving to the Observer.

^{page 224 note 2} Beesly, E. S., The Division on the Trades Union Bill, in: The Bee-Hive, 29 July 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 225 note 1} ibid.

^{page 225 note 2} Beesly, E. S., A Rallying Point, in: The Eastern Post, 29 July 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 225 note 3} Guile, D., Professor Beesly and Trade Society Secretaries, in: The Bee-Hive, 5 Aug. 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 225 note 4} Howell, G., Professor Beesly and the Pall Mall Gazette, in: The Bee-Hive, 4 Nov. 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 225 note 5} Marx, to Engels, , 11 Dec. 1876Google Scholar. (Marx/Engels Gesamtausgabe.)

^{page 225 note 6} Beesly, E. S., Comparative Atrocity, in: The Bee-Hive, 10 June 1871.Google Scholar

^{page 226 note 1} Beesly, to Marx, , 17 July 1871Google Scholar, 5 Nov. 1873, 10 Apr. 1874. (M.E.L.I.) See also two notes by Beesly to Marx in the I.I.S.H.

^{page 226 note 2} Beesly, to Marx, , 7 Oct. 1872. (M.E.L.I.)Google Scholar

^{page 226 note 3} Beesly, to Marx, , 18 Dec. 1875Google Scholar. (ibid.)

^{page 226 note 4} Webb, B., My Apprenticeship (Re-Issue), London 1929, p. 294.Google Scholar

^{page 226 note 5} Beesly, to Marx, , 8 July 1878. (M.E.L.I.)Google Scholar

^{page 227 note 1} Crompton, H. to Howell, G., 2 and 30 Dec. 1879. (B.I.)Google Scholar

^{page 227 note 2} This split was a most interesting and extraordinary affair which throws a great deal of light on the character of the English Positivists. There is no adequate public account of it, nor room to give one here.

^{page 227 note 3} Engels, to Patten, Van, 18 Apr. 1883Google Scholar. (Sel. Corr. Torr.)

^{page 227 note 4} Beesly, to Marx, , 14 Apr. 1881. (M.E.L.I.)Google Scholar

^{page 228 note 1} Beesly, E. S., Lord Beaconsfield at the Bar, in: The Bee-Hive, 18 Sept. 1870Google Scholar, and Impending Dangers, in: The Industrial Review, 28 Apr. 1877.

^{page 228 note 2} Beesly, E. S., Lord Beaconsfield at the Bar, in: The Bee-Hive, 18 Sept. 1876.Google Scholar

^{page 228 note 3} Beesly, E. S., Odger, George and Workmen, French, in: The Weekly Dispatch, 22 July 1877.Google Scholar

^{page 228 note 4} Congreve, R. to Edger, H., 27 Febr. 1868Google Scholar. (Congreve Collection, Wadham College, Oxford.)

^{page 229 note 1} Beesly, E. S., Our Foreign and Irish Policy, in: The Fortnightly Review, Febr. 1881Google Scholar: and a series of articles in The Labour Standard, particularly from 8 Oct. 1881 to 20 May 1882.

^{page 229 note 2} ibid.

^{page 229 note 3} Marx, to Engels, , 10 Dec. 1869Google Scholar. (Sel. Corr. Torr.)

^{page 229 note 4} Beesly, E. S., Socialist against the Grain, or the Price of Holding Ireland, London 1887.Google Scholar

^{page 229 note 5} Crompton, H., Despotism in Ireland, in: The Labour Standard, 22 Oct. 1881.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 1} Hyndman, H. M., Edward Spencer, Beesly, in: Justice, 15th July 1915.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 2} Marx, to Beesly, , 12 June 1871Google Scholar. (Sel. Corr. Torr.)

^{page 231 note 1} McGee, J. E.A Crusade for Humanity, London 1931, pp. 103–112Google Scholar. (This account of the schism neglects some fundamental factors.)

^{page 231 note 2} Beesly, E. S., Comte as a Moral Type, Annual Address, 5 Sept. 1885, London 1888Google Scholar. See also his Positivism and Comte in: The Positivist Review, Febr. 1897.

^{page 231 note 3} Mill, J. S., Comte and Positivism, London 1865.Google Scholar

^{page 231 note 4} Bridges, J. H., The Unity of Comte's Life and Doctrine, London 1866.Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 1} “The ‘subordination of Politics to Morality’ demands from Positivist writers an entire abstinence from rotten egg throwing and the amenities of the hustings. And this I don't think Beesly quite sees. He is more advanced in Positive Polity than in Positive Ethics.” Bridges, to Harrison, , cited in Liveing, S., A Nineteenth Century Teacher, London 1926, p. 121.Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 2} Harrison, A., Frederic Harrison, London 1926, p. 150.Google Scholar

^{page 233 note 1} Sombart tried to define capitalism and to discuss its origins in terms of states of mind. See: Der Moderne Kapitalismus, 1928, Ed. 1, p. 25. Cited and discussed by Dobb, M., Studies in the Development of Capitalism, London 1946, p. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 233 note 2} Mr. Morrison, Herbert, in a letter to the present writer dated 17 June 1958Google Scholar, confirms that he has used this definition in “a number of speeches.”

^{page 233 note 3} Minutes of the General Council, 31 Jan. 1871. (I.I.S.H.)

^{page 233 note 4} Engels, to Tennies, F., 24 Jan. 1895Google Scholar. (Sel. Corr. 1956.)

^{page 233 note 5} Marx, and Engels, , The Communist Manifesto, London 1948Google Scholar, Part iii, section iii: “Critical-utopian socialism and communism.”

^{page 234 note 1} Prenant, , Lucy, , Marx, Karl et Auguste Comte, in: A la lumière du Marxisme, Tome II (Paris 1937), p. 26.Google Scholar

^{page 234 note 2} Bottomore, T. B. and Rubel, M., Marx, Karl, Selected writings in sociology and social philosophy, London 1956, pp. 13–14Google Scholar. – In his letter to Engels of 25th July 1866 Marx explained that it was Comte's “encyclopaedic touch” which impressed the English and French. He does not suggest that this impressed him. On the contrary, he refers to “this Positivist rot.” (Sel. Corr. Torr.)

^{page 235 note 1} This is not the place for a detailed discussion of Professor Popper's critique of Marx' “historicism,” “Scientism,” “Holism” etc. ( Popper, K.R., The Open Society and Its Enemies [two volumes], London 1945Google Scholar, and The Poverty of Historicism, London 1957). Popper encourages a rather sweeping assimilation of Marx' ideas to those of Comte and others. This line of argument has been taken up and popularised by several other distinguished authorities. (See, for example, Acton, H.B., The Illusion of the Epoch, London 1956Google Scholar; Berlin, I., Historical Inevitability, being the Auguste Comte Memorial Trust Lecture, No 1, London 1954Google Scholar; Von Hayek, E.A., The Counter-Revolution of Science, Illinois, 1952Google Scholar). The fact of Beesly's collaboration with Marx lends some indirect support to the contention made in all these works that Positivism and Marxism belong to the same genus. It has, of course, no bearing whatsoever on the truth or falsity of Professor Popper's conclusions respecting the falacious and obnoxious character of Marx' method. Nor does it justify the practice, favoured by some of these writers, of building up selections from Hegel, Comte, Marx, Mill, and others, into a composite body of doctrine, an “Aunt Sally,” which can be knocked down to the accompaniment of loud announcements concerning the “refutation” of Marx.

^{page 235 note 2} Carr, E. H., The New Society, London 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 235 note 3} An explicit suggestion of how this might be done was made by Dietzgen, Joseph (The Religion of Socialism, being pp. 90–154 in Philosophical Essays, Chicago 1914)Google Scholar. The result is strikingly reminiscent of Comte's Religion of Humanity. Beatrice Webb sensed the secular religious quality of organized Marxism and expressly compared it with Positivism:

“It is the invention of the religious order, as the determining factor in the life of a great nation, that is the magnet which attracts me to Russia. Practically, that religion is Comteism – the religion of Humanity. Auguste Comte comes to his own. Whether he would recognise this strange resurrection of his idea I very much doubt.” ( Cole, M. [Editor], Beatrice Webb Diaries, 1924–1932, London 1956, p. 299).Google Scholar

The allegedly religious aspect of Marxism, whether considered as a body of ideas or an organized movement, has been widely canvassed. Perhaps the best short statement of the argument is to be found in Reinhold Niebuhr's “Christian Politics and Communist Religion” being Chapter III of Part III of Christianity and the Social Revolution, edited by John Lewis, London 1937. Among the other more significant contributions to this topic see Michels, R., Political Parties; a Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy, Illinois 1949Google Scholar; Russell, B., The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, London 1920Google Scholar; Keynes, J. M., What is the Communist Faith?, being Part One of A Short View of Russia, reprinted in: Essays in Persuasion, London 1931, pp. 297–305Google Scholar. Hitherto there has been no attempt to inform this discussion by enquiring into the relationship between Marxism and the rise, in the early nineteenth century, of the first secular religions in the West. It is proposed to make this the subject of a future article.

^{page 236 note 1} Duverger, M., Political Parties: Their Organisation and Activity in the Modern State, first English edition, London 1954, p. 123.Google Scholar

^{page 237 note 1} Reid, A. (Editor), Why I am a Liberal, London n.d. [1885], p. 21.Google Scholar

^{page 237 note 2} For example, “Professor Beesley [sic], one of the most energetic leaders of the socialistic movement in London, is a Positivist.” Bagenal, P. H., The International and its influence on English Politics, in: The National Review, Vol 11, pp. 422–423.Google Scholar

^{page 237 note 3} Beesly, E. S., Paragraphs, in: The Positivist Review, Sept. 1897.Google Scholar

^{page 237 note 4} Beesly, E. S., The Khaki Election, in: The Positivist Review, Oct. 1900.Google Scholar

^{page 237 note 5} Beesly, E. S., Liberals and Labour, in: The Positivist Review, Nov. 1906.Google Scholar

^{page 237 note 6} Bax, E. B., Letter to the Echo, 2 July 1878Google Scholar; an article in Modern Thought, Aug. 1879; and his The Religion of Socialism, London n.d. [1887?], pp. 52–53.

^{page 237 note 7} Herford, C. H., Wicksteed, P. H.: His Life and Work, London 1931, pp. 33–44 and p. 79.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 1} Olivier, M., Lettere and Selected Writings of Sydney Olivier, London 1948, pp. 55–64.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 2} Besant, A., Auguste Comte – His Philosophy, His Religion, His Sociology, London n.d. [1883?], pp. 1–39.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 3} Webb, S., The Economics of a Positivist Community. Abstract in: The Practical Socialist, Febr. 1886.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 4} Beesly, E. S., Positiviste and Workmen, in: The Fortnightly Review, July 1875.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 5} Beesly, E. S., Pacifism, in: The Positivist Review, Nov. 1907.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 6} Beesly, E. S., Paragraph, in: The Positivist Review, Jan. 1915.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 7} Beer, M., Fifty Years of International Socialism, London 1935, p. 135.Google Scholar

^{page 238 note 8} The Manchester Guardian, 10 July 1915, in its obituary notice on Beesly, “Death of a Great Positivist,” applied Hazlett's words to him.

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