第60页 / 共88页

In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different to

that of the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they

exploited under circumstances and conditions that were quite

different, and that are now antiquated. In showing that, under

their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget

that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their

own form of society.

For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary character

of their criticism that their chief accusation against the

bourgeoisie amounts to this, that under the bourgeois regime a

class is being developed, which is destined to cut up root and

branch the old order of society.

What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it

creates a proletariat, as that it creates a revolutionary

proletariat.