h immense
enthusiasm--by the French trade unions.

Needless to say, the decisive victory of the Bakouninists at Basel was
excessively annoying and humiliating to Marx. He did not attend in
person, but it was evident before the congress that he fully expected
that his forces would, on that occasion, destroy root and branch the
economic and political fallacies of Bakounin. He rather welcomed the
discussion of the differences between the program of the Alliance and
that of the International, in order that Eccarius, Liebknecht, and
others might demolish, once and for all, the reactionary proposals of
Bakounin. To Marx, much of the program of the Alliance seemed a remnant
of eighteenth-century philosophy, while the rest was pure utopianism,
consisting of unsound and impractical reforms, mixed with atheism and
schoolboy declamation. Altogether, the policies and projects of Bakounin
seemed so vulnerable that the General Council evidently felt that little
preparation was necessary in order to defeat them. They seemed to have
forgotten, for the moment, that Bakounin was an old and experienced
conspirator. In any case, he had left no stone unturned to obtain
control of the congress. Week by week, previous to the congress,
_l'Egalite_, the organ of the Swiss federation, had published articles
by Bakounin which, while professedly explaining the principles of the
International, were in reality attacking them; and most insidiously
Bakounin's own program was presented as the traditional position of the
organization. Liberty, fraternity, and equality were, of course, called
into service. The treason of certain working-class politicians was
pointed out as the natural and inevitable result of political action,
while to those who had given little thought to economic theory the
abolition of inheritances seemed the final word. Nor did Bakounin limit
his efforts to his pen. All sections of the Alliance undertook to see
that friends of Bakounin were sent as delegates to the congress, and it
was charged that credentials were obtained in various underhanded ways.
However that may have been, the "practical," "cold-blooded" Marx was
completely outwitted by his "sentimental" and "visionary" antagonist.
Instead of a great victory, therefore, the Marxists left the congress of
Basel utterly dejected, and Eccarius is reported to have said, "Marx
will be terribly annoyed."[18]

That Marx was annoyed is to put it with extraordinary moderation, and
fro