Manifesto
are, on the whole, as correct to-day as ever. Here and there some
detail might be improved. The practical application of the principles
will depend, as the Manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all
times, on the historical conditions for the time being existing, and
for that reason no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures
proposed at the end of Section II. That passage would, in many
respects, be very differently worded to-day. In view of the gigantic
strides of modern industry since 1848, and of the accompanying improved
and extended organization of the working class; in view of the
practical experience gained, first in the February revolution, and
then, still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the
first time held political power for two whole months, this programme
has in some details become antiquated. One thing especially was proved
by the Commune, viz., that 'the working class cannot simply lay hold of
the ready-made State machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.'
(See 'The Civil War in France; Address of the General Council of the
International Workingmen's Association,' London, Truelove, 1871, p. 15,
where this point is further developed.) Further, it is self-evident
that the criticism of Socialist literature is deficient in relation to
the present time, because it comes down only to 1847; also, that the
remarks on the relation of the Communists to the various opposition
parties (Section IV.), although in principle still correct, yet in
practice are antiquated, because the political situation has been
entirely changed, and the progress of history has swept from off the
earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated.

"But, then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we
have no longer any right to alter."

The present translation is by Mr. Samuel Moore, the translator of the
greater portion of Marx's "Capital." We have revised it and I have
added a few notes explanatory of historical allusions.

FREDERICK ENGELS.

London, January 30, 1888.

(a) Lassalle personally, to us, always acknowledged himself to be a
disciple of Marx, and, as such, stood on the ground of the "Manifesto."
But in his public agitation, 1862-64, he did not go beyond demanding
co-operative workshops supported by State credit.

(b) The condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. By
Frederick Engels. Translated by Florence K. Wischn