Secret Diplomatic History of The Eighteenth Century
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~35,200 words · 167 passages
Cite this work
- APAKarl Marx. (n.d.). Secret Diplomatic History of The Eighteenth Century. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/karl-marx/secret-diplomatic-history-of-the-eighteenth-century
- MLAKarl Marx. Secret Diplomatic History of The Eighteenth Century. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/karl-marx/secret-diplomatic-history-of-the-eighteenth-century.
- ChicagoKarl Marx. Secret Diplomatic History of The Eighteenth Century. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/karl-marx/secret-diplomatic-history-of-the-eighteenth-century.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
An essay on British and Russian diplomacy in the eighteenth century, and on the origins of Russian expansion.
Context and history
The least-read Marx and the most awkward for his followers: so hostile to Russia that Soviet editors left it out of the collected works. Worth reading for exactly that reason — a part of the thought the later tradition hid.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
In consequence of these representations, D'Aiguillon countermanded the squadron at Brest, but gave new orders for the equipment of an armament at Toulon. "On receiving intelligence of these renewed preparations, the British Cabinet made instant and vigorous demonstrations of resistance; Lord Stormont was ordered to declare that every argument used respecting the Baltic applied equally to the Mediterranean. A memorial also was presented to the French Minister, accompanied by a demand that it should be laid before the King and Council. This produced the desired effect; the armament was countermanded, the sailors disbanded, and the chances of an extensive warfare avoided." "_Lord North_," says the complacent writer from whom we have borrowed the last lines, "_thus effectually served the cause of his ally_ (Catherine II.), _and facilitated the treaty of peace_ (of Kutchuk-Kainardji) _between Russia and the Porte_." Catherine II. rewarded Lord North's good services, first by withholding the aid she had promised him in case of a war between England and the North American Colonies, and in the second place, by conjuring up and leading the armed neutrality against England. Lord North DARED NOT _repay, as he was advised by Sir James Harris_, this treacherous breach of faith by giving up to Russia, and to _Russia alone_, the maritime rights of Great Britain. Hence the irritation in the nervous system of the Czarina; the hysterical fancy she caught all at once of "entertaining a bad opinion" of Lord North, of "disliking" him, of feeling a "rooted aversion" against him, of being afflicted with "a total want of confidence," etc. In order to give the Shelburne Administration a warning example, Sir James Harris draws up a minute psychological picture of the feelings of the Czarina, and the disgrace incurred by the North Administration, for having wounded these same feelings.…
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