1848
Dear Marx,
If I haven't written to you it was because I have as yet still not been able to get hold of that accursed Louis Blanc. Décidément il y
met de la mauvaise volonté.* But I'm determined to catch him— every day I go to him or lie in wait for him at the café. Père Flocon, on the other hand, is proving more amenable. He is delighted at the way the Brüsseler-Zeitung and The Northern Star defended the Réforme against the National}1 Not even the blâme against L. Blanc and Ledru-Rollin have succeeded in flustering him, any more than my announcement that we have now decided in London to come out openly as communists. He, of course, made some capital assertions: vous tendez au despotisme, vous tuerez la révolution en France, nous avons onze millions de petits paysans qui sont en même temps les propriétaires les plus enragés,c etc., etc., although he also abused the peasants,— but enfin, dit-il, nos principes sont trop rapprochés les uns des autres pour que nous ne devions pas marcher ensemble; quant à nous nous vous appuyerons autant que sera dans notre pouvoir,d etc., etc.
14 1848
I was enormously tickled by the Mosia business, although annoyed that it should have come to light. Apart from you, no one in Brussels knew of it save Gigot and Lupus — and Born, whom I told about it in Paris once when I was in my cups. Enfin, c'est égal}
Moses brandishing his pistols, parading his horns before the whole of Brussels, and before Bornstedt into the bargain!!, must have been exquisite. Ferdinand Wolff's inventiveness over the minutes m'a fait crever de rire"—and Moses believes that! If, by the by, the jackass should persist in his preposterous lie about rape, I can provide him with enough earlier, concurrent, and later details to send him reeling. For only last July here in Paris this Balaam's she-assd made me, in optima forma," a declaration of love mingled with resignation, and confided to me the most intimate nocturnal secrets of her ménage! Her rage with me is unrequited love, pure and simple. For that matter, Moses came only second in my thoughts at Valenciennes, my first desire being to revenge myself for all the dirty tricks they had played on Mary.'
The strong wine proves to be no more than a '/a bottle of Bordeaux. It is only to be regretted that the horned Siegfried R did not have his unhappy lot publicly minuted by the Workers' Society.[158] He is perfectly at liberty, by the way, to avenge himself on all my present, past and future mistresses, and for that purpose I commend to him 1) the Flemish giantess who lives at my former lodgings, 87 chaussée d'lxelles au premier^ and whose name is Mademoiselle Joséphine, and 2) a Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle Félicie1 who, on Sunday, the 23rd of this month, will be arriving in Brussels by the first train from Cologne on her way to Paris. It would be bad luck if he were to succeed with neither. Kindly pass on this information to him in order that he may appreciate my honourable intentions. I WILL GIVE HIM FAIR PLAY.
It is nearly all up with Heine. I visited him. a fortnight ago and he was in bed, having had a nervous fit. Yesterday he was up but extremely ill. He can hardly manage three steps now; supporting himself against the wall, he crawls from armchair to bed and vice versa. On top of that, the noise in his house, cabinet-making, hammering, etc., is driving him mad. Intellectually he is also somewhat spent. Heinzen desired to see him but was not admitted. -
I was also at Herwegh's yesterday. Along with the rest of his family he has influenza and is much visited by old women. He told me that L. Blanc's 2nd volume[3] has been quite eclipsed by the enormous success of Michelet's 2nd volume.*[1] I have not yet read either because shortage of money has prevented me from subscribing to the reading room. By the way, Michelet's success can only be attributed to his suspension [192] and his civic spirit.
Things are going wretchedly with the League0 here. Never have I encountered such sluggishness and petty jealousy as there is among these fellows. Weitlingianism and Proudhonism are truly the exact expression of these jackasses' way of life and hence nothing can be done. Some are genuine Straubingers,[86] ageing boors, others aspiring petty bourgeois. A class which lives, Irish-fashion, by depressing the wages of the French, is utterly-useless. T am now making one last attempt, si cela ne réussit pas, je me retire de cette espèce de propagande? I hope that the London papers' will arrive soon and help to liven things up somewhat again; then I shall strike while the iron is hot. Not yet having seen any results from the Congress, the fellows are naturally growing completely supine. I am in contact with several new workers introduced to me by Stumpf and Neubeck but as yet there is no knowing what can be made of them.
Tell Bornstedt: 1) In the matter of his subscriptions,' his attitude towards the workers here should not be so rigorously commercial, otherwise he'll lose them all; 2) the agent procured for him by Moses is a feeble Jeremiah and very conceited, but the only one who still will and can attend to the thing, so he had better not rub him up the wrong way; the fellow has, moreover, gone to great pains, but he can't put in money — which, for that matter, he has done already. Out of the money coming in to him he has to cover the expenses correspondence, etc. involves for him; 3) if he is sending separate issues, he should never send more than 10-15 at most of [...] one issue, and these as opportunity offers. The parcels go through Duchâtel's ministry, whence they have to be fetched at considerable expenditure in time and where the ministry exacts a fearsome postal charge in order to ruin this traffic. A parcel of this kind costs 6-8 francs, and what can one do if that's what they ask? Esselens in Liège wanted to appoint a garde
53. Engels to Marx. 21 January
de convoi* to deliver it. Write to Liège and tell them this will be arranged. 4) The issues that were still here have been sent by third party to South Germany. Should occasion offer, Bornstedt should send us a few more issues to be used as propaganda in cafés, etc., etc. 5) Within the next few days Bornstedt will be receiving an articleb and the thing about the Prussian finances. But you must again cast an eye over the part about the committees of 1843[193]
and alter it where necessary, since my memory of the subject was very hazy at the time of writing.
If the Mosi business eventually leads to your attacking him in the Brüsseler-Zeitung, I shall be delighted. How the fellow can still remain in Brussels, I fail to understand. En voilà encore une occasion pour l'exiler à Verviers! The matter of the Réforme will be attended to.d
Your E.
[On the back of the letter]
Monsieur Philipp Gigot 8.-Rue Bodenbroeck, Bruxelles
53
ENGELS TO MARX
IN BRUSSELS
Paris, Friday evening, 21 January 1848
Dear Marx,
At last I have run L. Blanc to earth and at the same time found out why I could never get hold of him. Ecoute plutôt—ce petit grand-seigneur littéraire ne reçoit que les jeudis! et encore l'après-midi seulement!* Of this he never informed me, either directly or through his doorkeeper. I found him, of course, surrounded by a crowd of jackasses, amongst whom Ramon de La Sagra, who gave me a pamphlet which I shall send on to you.b I have not yet read it. However I was finally able to have a few minutes' talk with him about our affairs. He reluctantly admitted that he had not yet had time to read your bookc ... je l'ai feuilleté et j'ai vu que M. Proudhon y est assez vivement attaqué.... Eh bien, I asked, alors serez vous en mesure de faire l'article pour la 'Réforme' que vous m'aviez promis?—Un article, ah mon Dieu, non, je suis si obsédé par mes éditeurs—mais voilà ce qu'il faut faire: faites l'article vous-même et je le ferai passer à la 'Réforme'.0 This was then agreed. Au fond" you'll lose nothing by it. At least I'll present our views more correctly than he would have done. I shall draw a direct parallel between these and his own — that is the most that can be done: naturally a conclusion detrimental to the Réforme cannot be drawn in the Réforme itself. I shall see to this forthwith.[194]
Why didn't you tell Bornstedt not to write to the Réforme about your thing? My article was finished when Bornstedt's appeared in the Réforme along with the Chartist thingsf whose publication I was awaiting before taking mine in. It was appreciably longer than the brief notice in which, to boot, your name is distorted/ I told Flocon he must correct the printer's error; he had not done so yesterday and I haven't seen today's Réforme. It is of little moment anyhow. As soon as your speech h appears, send me 4-5 copies for the Réforme, L. Blanc, de La Sagra (for the Démocratie pacifique), etc.; I can now make a longer article of it as the notice was so abominably brief.
As for L. Blanc, he deserves to be castigated. Write a review of his Révolution* for the Deutsche-Brüsseler-Zeitung and prove to him in practice how far above him we are; the form amicable, but the content leaving no doubt as to our superiority. On lui fera parvenir cela} The petty sultan must be made to quake a little. The theoretical aspect, alas, is for the time being our only strength, but this carries much weight in the eyes of these champions of science sociale, of the loi de la production suffisante? etc. Comical, these fellows, with their chasing after this unknown loi. They wish to find a law by which they will increase production tenfold. Like the waggoner in the fable, they seek a Hercules who will drag the social waggon out of the mire for them. Yet there Hercules is, in their own hands. The loi de la production suffisante consists in one's ability to produce suffisamment. If they cannot do so, no magic formula will avail. Inventors who take out a brevetd do more for production suffisante than the whole of L. Blanc with his profound, high-flying aspirations to la science.
I wrote Bernays a very ironical letter in reply to his last, expressing regret that his impartiality should have robbed me of the ultimate consolation — that of being a beautiful soul misunder-stood— à la Praslin.e Raising his eyebrows reproachfully, he returns me the note,[195] observing that this marks the end of our correspondence. Sela.{
Otherwise nothing new. Write soon.
Your E.
[On the back of the letter]
Mr Karl Marx in the German Workers' Society, Brussels
First publshed in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, 1913
54. Marx to Engels. Between 7 and 12 March
55. Engels to Marx. 8- 9 March
54
MARX TO ENGELS[196]
IN BRUSSELS
Paris, [between 7 and 12 March 1848] 10, rue neuve Ménilmontant (Boulevard Beaumarchais)
Dear Engels,
Get Breyer to pay you the 100 francs which he solemnly promised me to repay within a week, get 30 from Gigot, 10 from Hess. I hope that, as things are now, Breyer will keep his promise.
Maynz will cash the bill for 114 fr. at Cassel's and give you the money. Collect these various sums and use them.
They spoke kindly of you at the Réforme. Flocon is ill and I haven't yet seen him. The rumour spread by Seiler is circulating among the Germans generally. Allard has not yet been ousted by the revolution. I advise you to come here.
Central Authority has been constituted here,[197] since Jones, Harney, Schapper, Bauer and Moll are all on the spot. I have been nominated chairman and Schapper secretary. Members are: Wallau, Lupus, Moll, Bauer and Engels.
Jones left for England yesterday; Harney is ill. Salut.
Your
K. M.
55 ENGELS TO MARX
IN PARIS
Brussels, [8-]9 March [1848] 3, rue Neuve Chaussée de Louvain
Dear Marx,
I hope I shall hear from you tomorrow. All is quiet here. On Sunday(1) evening Jottrand told the Association Démocratique about what had happened to you and your wife.[198] I arrived too late to hear him, and only heard some furious remarks from Pellering in Flemish. Gigot spoke as well, and reverted to the matter. Lubliner published an article about it in the Emancipation.[3] The lawyers here are furious. Maynz wants to take the matter up in court and says that you should institute a civil action on the grounds of violation of domicile, etc. Gigot is also to lodge a complaint. It would be capital if this were done, although the government has made it known that the fellowa
would be dismissed. Yesterday Maynz provided Castiau with the documents he needs to interpellate on this score; I think this will happen tomorrow or the day after.[199] The affair has caused a considerable sensation and has greatly helped to mollify anti-German sentiment.
Lupus was taken to the railway station last Sunday morning at 11 o'clock and packed off to Valenciennes, whence he has written and where he must still be. He did not appear before any tribunal. Nor was he even escorted home to pick up his things! [20]°
They've left me unmolested. From various remarks the fellows have let fall, it would seem that they are afraid of expelling me because they previously issued me with a passport, and this might be used against them.
It's a bad business in Cologne. Our three best men are in jug.[201]
I have been speaking to someone who took an active part in the business.h They wanted to go into the attack, but instead of supplying themselves with weapons, which were easily obtainable, they went to the town hall unarmed and let themselves be surrounded. It is said that most of the troops were on their side. The thing was initiated without rhyme or reason; if the chap's reports are to be believed, they could very well have gone into the attack and in 2 hours all would have been over. But everything was organised with appalling stupidity.
Our old friends in Cologne appear to have kept well in the background, although they, too, had decided to go into action. Little d'Ester, Daniels, Bürgers put in a brief appearance but went off again at once, although the little Dr was needed on the city council just then.[202]
Otherwise the news from Germany is splendid. In Nassau a revolution completed, in Munich students, painters and workers in full revolt, in Kassel revolution on the doorstep, in Berlin unbounded fear and indecision, in the whole of western Germany freedom of the press and National Guard proclaimed; enough to be going along with.
If only Frederick William IV digs his heels in! Then all will be won and in a few months' time we'll have the German Revolution. If he only sticks to his feudal forms! But the devil only knows what this capricious and crazy individual will do.
In Cologne the whole of the petty bourgeoisie is for union with the French Republic; at the moment memories of 1797 are uppermost in their minds.[203]
Tedesco's still in jug. I don't know when he'll be appearing in court.
A fulminating article about your affair has gone off to The Northern Star."
On Sunday evening remarkable calm at the sitting of the Democratic Association. Resolved to petition the Chambers, demanding their immediate dissolution and new elections in accordance with the new census. The government does not wish to dissolve but will have to. Tomorrow evening the petition will be adopted and signed séance tenanted
Jottrand's petition to the Burgomaster0 and city council met with a very courteous rejection.
You have no idea of the calm that reigns here. Last night, carnival just as usual; the French Republic is scarcely ever mentioned. In the cafés you can get French newspapers with hardly any difficulty or delay. If you didn't know that they must,
tant bien que mal,A you'd think it was all finished here.
On Sunday Jottrand — furious about your persecution — made a really good speech; Rogier's sévices*' have brought him to recognise the class antithesis. He fulminated against the big bourgeoisie and entered into details — perhaps rather trite and illusory but economic nonetheless — to demonstrate to the petty bourgeoisie that a well-paid working class with a high rate of consumption in a republic would provide better custom for them than a Court and a not very numerous aristocracy. Altogether à la O'Connor.
It being now too late to catch the post with this letter, I shall finish it tomorrow.
56. Marx to Engels. 16 March
Thursday
Nothing new — I saw your article in the Réforme[3]—so there's a rumpus going on in England as well, tant mieux}a
If you haven't written by the time this arrives, do write at once. Ironically enough, my baggage has just arrived from Paris— costing me 50 fr.! with customs, etc., etc.
Adieu.
Your
Engels
It would seem that the Deputy Inspector of Police who came to your house has already been dismissed. The affair has aroused great indignation among the petty bourgeois here.
[On the back of the letter]
Monsieur Charles Marx aux soins de Madame Gsell, 75, Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris.
b . „ . . „ , , , • r ,1 • , , , . „ , Published in English tor the tirst Stuttgart, 191.1 and in full in A1EGA, ö
Abt. III, Bd. 1, 1929
time
56
MARX TO ENGELS[204]
IN BRUSSELS
[Paris,] 16 March 1848
Dear Engels,
I never have a minute these days to write at any length. I confine myself to essentials.
Flocon is very well disposed towards you. The Straubingers[86] here are all more or less furious with you (set-to with Sch.,c etc.).
As regards my things, take them with you as far as Valenciennes and have them sealed there. Everything will go through exempt. As regards the silver, it has already been hallmarked here in Paris. In Valenciennes you must in any case go to the man whose address I enclose." On Vogler's advice my wife sent him the keys to the trunks (which are in Brussels), but without a way-bill. You must fetch these keys from him, otherwise everything will be broken open by the customs here.
As regards the money, tell Cassel he must give you the bill if he won't pay it. Then perhaps Baillut will pay it.
Get Gigot to settle accounts and at least give you the balance. As regards Breyer, you must go to see him again and point out what a shabby trick it would be if he made use of my ill-fortune to avoid payment. He must hand over at least part to you. The revolution hasn't cost him a sou.
The bourgeoisie here are again becoming atrociously uppish and reactionary, mais elle verrai
Bornstedt and Herwegh are behaving like scoundrels. They have founded a black, red and gold association[205] contre nous? The former is to be expelled from the Leagued today.
Your M.
At the moment I am unable to find the feuille de route" and this letter must go off.
Dismiss Gigot if he doesn't begin to show signs of activity. Just now the fellow ought to be more energetic.
My warmest regards to Maynz; also to Jottrand. I have received the latest Débat social.
My regards to Vogler likewise. I shall write at length to Maynz and Jottrand.[206]
Farewell.
57. Engels to Marx. 18 March
57
ENGELS TO MARX
IN PARIS
•»[Brussels,] Saturday [18 March 1848]
Dear Marx,
I shall send off your things. Write a few lines to M. Victor Faider, avocat,[3] either direct or enclosed [in a letter] to Bloss, thanking him for the steps he has taken on behalf of you and your wife, and authorising him to take further steps. Faider, who has suddenly turned out to be a zealous republican, has constituted himself your defence counsel and as such will reply to the Moniteur belge,b and follow the matter up. He hopes you won't disavow him and, to enable him to take a determined stand, you would do well to send him a note. It is better that a Belgian, rather than Maynz, should pursue the case and, since he has offered his services, he will probably do his job properly.
You really must send the feuille de routed The thing is badly needed; Maynz asks after it daily.
Tedesco's been released and left for Liège immediately, without seeing a soul. Esselens was here for a few days, but he didn't see him.
The Bourse, finance, industry and trade here are in the throes of an unprecedented crisis. In the Café Suisse, Commerce is moping about with nothing to do, Messrs Kauwerz, Lauffs and Co. go creeping round with their tails between their legs, the workers have held rassemblements[6] and handed in petitions, a general and serious food shortage. Cash is nowhere to be had, and withal an
emprunt forcée of 60 millions! It'll be the Bourse that will impose the Republic on them here.
Liming returned here to be confronted with the news that there's a hue and cry after him in Prussia; he is going to send for his wife and come to Paris.
Before he fled, Dronke was accepted into the League' by Willich and Co. I subjected him to a fresh examination here, expounded our views to him and, since he declared himself to be in agreement with them, confirmed his admission. One could hardly have done otherwise, even if there had been an element of doubt. However, the fellow's very modest, very young and seems to all appearances very responsive, so I think that, with a little supervision and some study, he will turn out well. In my presence he retracted all his earlier writings.a Unfortunately he lives with Mosesb who will thus be working on him in between whiles, but, as we know, that is of no consequence. With Liming, to whom he had become frightfully attached, only a couple of words were needed to unsaddle him.
Moses, by the way, is friendlier than ever — just try to understand the fellow!
J can't do apything with Cassel, since Maynz has the ordre,c not me. Breyer pleads the financial crisis, the impossibility, just now, of arranging a deferred settlement of his old bills, the refusal of all his patients to pay. He even says that he intends to sell his one and only horse. However I will see what js to be had, for I can hardly manage with the money from Maynz, and Hess' payment, which was the first, has already gone the way of all flesh. Gigot is also in a fix. I shall go and see Breyer again today.
Tomorrow's Débat social will contain a detailed refutation, mot pour motd of the Moniteur.
You must further tell Faider that, if he has to have a special power of attorney, you will send him one.
Also write a few lines to M. Bricourt, membre de la Chambre des Représentants, who spoke up admirably on your behalf in the Chamber [199] and, at Maynz's request, put some searching questions to the Minister,' and who has instituted an enquêtee into the affair. He is the deputy for Charleroi and, after Castiau, the best of the lot. Castiau has just been to Paris.
Look through the enclosed scrawlf and send it to the Réforme. The fellows here need to be constantly provoked.
Si c'est possibleh I shall leave on Monday.[207] But money matters are perpetually thwarting my designs.
I am getting no news at all from England, whether through letters or the Star.
In Germany things are going very well indeed, riots everywhere and the Prussians aren't giving way. Tant mieux." I hope we shan't have to remain very long in Paris.
How excellent that you are throwing out Bornstedt.b The fellow has proved so unreliable that his expulsion from the League is essential. He and Weerth are now allied and Weerth is running round here as a fanatical republican.
Lamartine is becoming daily more depraved. In all his speeches the man addresses himself exclusively to the bourgeoisie and seeks to pacify them. Even the Provisional Government's Electoral Proclamation0 is directed wholly at the bourgeoisie in order to reas-sure them. Small wonder that the creatures are becoming uppish.
Adios, au revoir.
F. E.
All letters to be sent here to the address I have given; en mon absence0 Bloss will give them to Gigot.
[On the back of the letter]
M. Marx Rue neuve Ménilmontant
58. Engels to Emil Blank. 26 March
Dear Emil,
After the glorious February revolution and Belgium's stillborn March revolution, I came back here last week. I wrote to Mother asking for money so that within a few days I could return to Germany[208] where we are starting up the Rheinische Zeitung* again. Mother is now very anxious to see me back in Germany, partly because she believes that there might again be some shooting here in the course of which I could get hurt, partly because she wants me to return anyway. However she also says in her letter:
'How I can be expected to send you the money, I really don't know, since a few days ago Fould notified Father that he was doing no more business, and since several good bills sent him by Father came back and were protested. Write and tell me, then, how I can be expected to let you have the money.'
The simplest thing would be for you to send me 20 pounds in banknotes, these being highly regarded here, and at once arrange with my old man to reimburse you. In this way I shall get my money quickly and be able to leave, whereas I would otherwise be stuck here for another week before getting money from Barmen, let alone Engelskirchen. I am therefore writing to Barmen this very day for them to repay you the £20, and I would ask you to arrange matters in the way I have just said, since bills are no longer any good.
You can send half of the bisected banknotes to me today, addressed to 19ter rue de la Victoire, Paris, and the remainder next day to Mlle Félicité André, same street and No. This will foil letter thieves.
Here things are going very well,20a i.e. the bourgeoisie, who were beaten on 24 February and 17 March,b are once more raising their heads and railing horribly against the Republic. But the only result of this will be that a thunderstorm quite unlike anything they have known before will very soon break over them. If the fellows persist in their insolence, some of them will very soon be strung up by the people. In the provisional government they have a certain party, namely Lamartine, the soft-soaper, whose life will also soon be forfeit. The workers here, 200,000-300,000 strong, will hear of no one but Ledru-Rollin, and they are right. He is the most resolute and radical of all. Flocon, too, is very good; I've been to see him once or twice and am about to do so again; he's a thoroughly honest fellow.
We have nothing to do with the great crusade which is departing from here to set up the German republic by force of
210 arms.
My kindest regards to Marie" and the little ones and reply by return.
In haste,
Your
Frederick
59. Engels to Emil Blank. 28 March[211]
Dear Emil,
Today I received the first four halves of the 4 £5 notes and would ask you to send the other halves immediately, since I must get away as soon as possible. Many thanks for your willingness to come so promptly to my assistance in this EMERGENCY. Your subscription to the Rheinische Zeitungh has been registered.
As regards the parties here, there are, properly speaking, three major ones, not counting the minor ones (Legitimists0 and Bonapartists who simply intrigue, mere sects without influence among the people, in part wealthy, but no hope whatever of victory). These three are, first, those defeated on 24 February, i.e. the big bourgeoisie, speculators on the Bourse, bankers, manufacturers and big merchants, the old conservatives and liberals. Secondly, the petty bourgeoisie, the middle class, the bulk of the National Guard which, on 23 and 24 Febr. sided with the people, the 'reasonable radicals', Lamartine's men and those of the National. Thirdly, the people, the Parisian workers, who are now holding Paris by force of arms.
The big bourgeoisie and the workers are in direct confrontation with each other. The petty bourgeois play an intermediary but altogether contemptible role. The latter, however, have a majority in the provisional government (Lamartine, Marrast, Dupont de l'Eure, Marie, Garnier-Pagès and, occasionally, Crémieux as well).
They, and the provisional government with them, vacillate a great deal. The quieter everything becomes, the more the government and the petty-bourgeois party incline towards the big bourgeoisie; the greater the unrest, the more they join up with the workers again. Recently, for instance, when the bourgeois had again become fearfully uppish and actually dispatched a column of National Guards 8,000 strong to the Town Halla to protest against a decree of the provisional government, and more especially against Ledru-Rollin's vigorous measures,[212] they did in fact succeed in so intimidating the majority of the government, and in particular the weak-kneed Lamartine, that he publicly disavowed Ledru. But on the following day, 17 March, 200,000 workers marched on the Town Hall, proclaimed their implicit confidence in Ledru-Rollin and compelled the majority of the government and Lamartine to recant. For the time being, then, the men of the
Réforme (Ledru-Rollin, Flocon, L. Blanc, Albert, Arago) again have the upper hand. They, more than anyone else in the government, still represent the workers, and are communists without knowing it. Unfortunately little Louis Blanc is making a great ass of himself with his vanity and his crack-brained schemes.[213] Ere long he will come a terrible cropper. But Ledru-Rollin is behaving very well.
The most unfortunate thing is that the government, on the one hand, has to make promises to the workers and, on the other, is unable to keep any of them because it lacks the courage to secure the necessary funds by revolutionary measures against the bourgeoisie, by severe progressive taxation, succession duties, confiscation of all émigré property, ban on the export of currency, state bank, etc. The men of the Réforme are allowed to make promises which they are then prevented from keeping by the most inane conservative decisions.
In addition there is now a new element in the National Assembly: the peasants who make up [5]/[7] of the French nation and support the party of the National, of the petty bourgeoisie. It is highly probable that this party will win, that the men of the Réforme will fall, and then there'll be another revolution. It's also possible that, once in Paris, the deputies will realise how things stand here, and that only the men of the Réforme can stay the course in the long term. This, however, is improbable.
The postponement of the elections for a fortnight is also a victory for the Parisian workers over the bourgeois party.[214] The men of the National, Marrast and Co., cut a very poor figure in other respects as well. They live in clover and provide their friends with palaces and good positions. Those from the
Réforme are quite different. I've been to see old Flocon several times; the fellow lives as before in poor lodgings on the fifth floor, smokes cheap shag in an old clay pipe, and has bought nothing for himself but a new dressing-gown. For the rest his way of life is no less republican than when he was still editor of the Réforme, nor is he any less friendly, cordial and open-hearted. He's one of the most decent fellows I know.
Recently I lunched at the Tuileries, in the Prince de Joinville's suite, with old Imbert who was a réfugié in Brussels and is now Governor of the Tuileries. In Louis-Philippe's apartments now the wounded lie on the carpets, smoking stubby pipes. In the throne-room the portraits of Soult and Bugeaud have been torn down and ripped and the one of Grouchy cut to shreds.
Going past at this very moment, to the strains of the Marseillaise, is the funeral cortège of a working man who died of his wounds. Escorting him are National Guards and armed populace at least 10,000 strong, and young toffs from the Chaussée d'Antin, have to escort the procession as mounted National Guards. The bourgeois are enraged at seeing a working man thus given the last honours.
Your
F. E.
60. Marx and Engels to Etienne Cabet. 5 April
Dear Citizen,
During the last two days of our stay in Paris we presented ourselves at your house several tim.es. But we always found your offices[3] so crowded with people that our all too limited time prevented us from taking our turn and waiting. We therefore regret that we have to leave without having had one last interview with you.
Mr Ewerbeck, who will be delivering this, will take it upon himself to inform us of the address we should use when writing to
9(1) you.
We do not doubt for one instant that we shall shortly be able to give you favourable news of the progress of the communist movement in Germany.
Meanwhile, please accept our respectful greetings.
Yours very sincerely
K. Marx, F. Engels
61. Engels to Emil Blank. 15 April
Dear Emil,
I am safely back here again.[216] The whole of Barmen is waiting to see what I shall do. They believe I'm going to proclaim the republic forthwith. The philistines are trembling with vague fear — what of, they themselves don't really know. At any rate, it is believed that, now I am here, much will speedily resolve itself. C. and A. Ermen were quaking visibly when I walked into their office today. I, of course, am not meddling in anything but waiting quietly to see what happens.
The panic here is ineffable. The bourgeoisie are calling for confidence but confidence has gone. Most of them are fighting for existence, as they themselves put it. This doesn't fill the workers' bellies, however, and from time to time they rebel a little. General dissolution, ruin, anarchy, despair, fear, rage, constitutional
62. Marx to Engels. About 24 April
enthusiasm, hatred of the Republic, etc., are rampant, and the fact is, for the time being, the richest people are the most tormented and frightened. And the exaggerations, the lies, the ranting and the railing, are enough to drive one out of one's mind. The most placid of citizens is a real enragé."
But they're in for a surprise when once the Chartists make a start. The business of the procession was a mere bagatelle. In a couple of months, my friend, G. Julian Harney, to whom pray address the enclosed letter, 9 Queen Street, Brompton, will be in Palmerston's shoes.[217] I'LL BET YOU TWOPENCE AND IN FACT ANY SUM.
All is well with your mother and mine. They are expecting your brother Hermann; Anna is in Hamm. My regards to Marieb and the children. À bientôt.
Your F.
62
MARX TO ENGELS
IN BARMEN
Cologne [about. 24 April 1848] Apostelnstrasse Nr. 7
Dear Engels,
A good many have already been subscribed for here, and we shall probably soon be able to make a start.[218] But now you must without fail make demands on your old man and in general declare definitively what is to be done in Barmen and Elberfeld.
A prospectus (written by Bürgers),c etc., has been sent from here to Hecker in Elberfeld.
63. Engels to Marx. 25 April
Have you no address for Dronke? He must be written to forthwith.
Answer by return. I might come to your part of the world if things don't look too fearsome with you.[219]
Your M.
iqio • ' Published in English tor the first time
63
ENGELS TO MARX[220]
IN COLOGNE
B[armen,] 25 April 1848
Dear Marx,
I have just received the prospectusa along with your letter. There's damned little prospect for the shares here. Blank,b to whom I had already written about it[221] and who is still the best of the lot, has become practically a bourgeois; the others even more so since they became established and came into conflict with the workers. All these folk shun the discussion of social questions like the plague, calling it seditious talk. I have lavished on them the finest rhetoric, and resorted to every imaginable diplomatic ploy, but always hesitant answers. I am now going to make one final effort; if it fails, that will be the end of everything. In 2-3 days you'll have definite news about how things have gone. The fact is,
au fond,c that even these radical bourgeois here see us as their future main enemies and have no intention of putting into our hands weapons which we would very shortly turn against themselves.
Nothing whatever is to be got out of my old man. To him even the Kölner Zeitung is a hotbed of agitation and, sooner than present us with 1,000 talers, he would pepper us with a thousand balls of grape.
The most advanced of the bourgeois here find their party represented pretty much to their satisfaction by the Köln. Zeitung.
Que veux-tu qu'on fasse, alors?*
Moses'b agent, Schnaake, who was here last week, would seem to have been calumniating us too.[222]
I have no address for Dronke except: Adolf Dominicus, merchant, Coblenz (his uncle). His old man is living in Fulda, a grammar school headmaster, I think. It's a little backwater: Dr E. Dronke junior, Fulda, would probably reach him if he's there. But it's foolish of him not to write, if only to let us know his whereabouts.
I have had a letter from Ewerbeck asking whether we have received a supposedly important letter which he sent to the agreed address in Mainz. If you haven't had it, write and inform Mainz (Philipp Neubeck, teacher candidate, Rentengasse (Heiliger Geist), Mainz).
Ewerbeck is having the Manifesto"" translated into Italian and Spanish in Paris and to that end wants us to send him 60 fr. which he has undertaken to pay. Yet another of those schemes of his. They will be splendid translations.[223]
I am working on the English translation, which presents more difficulties than I thought. However, I'm over half way through, and before long the whole thing will be finished.[224]
If even a single copy of our 17 points'[1] were to circulate here, all would be lost for us. The mood of the bourgeoisie is really ugly. The workers are beginning to bestir themselves a little, still in a very crude way, but as a mass. They at once formed coalitions. But to us that can only be a hindrance. The Elberfeld political club[225]
issues addresses to the Italians, advocates direct election but resolutely eschews any discussion of social questions, although in private these gentlemen admit that such questions are now coming to be the order of the day, always with the proviso that we should not take precipitate action!
64. Engels to Marx. 9 May
Adios. Write soon in greater detail. Has the letter been sent to Paris, and did it have any results?[226]
Your E.
64
ENGELS TO MARX
IN COLOGNE
[Barmen,] 9 May 1848
Dear Marx, Herewith:
1. The list of the shares so far subscribed for, 14 in number. 2. A proxy for you.[227]
3. One for d'Ester (Bohnstedt is an acquaintance of his). 4. One for Bürgers. It was unavoidable that Bohnstedt and Hecker should have given their proxies to personal acquaintances.
Hühnerbein will appear there in person on behalf of himself and two others here.
The list is not yet closed. Although I have called on Laverrière and Blank x times, I haven't found them at home. Zulauff has taken over the former.
Two others, with whom I made no headway, will be worked upon by Hecker.
Today Zulauff is going to Ronsdorf, where he has good prospects. , The two kinds of people who prove the most difficult are, firstly, the young républicains en gants jaunes? who fear for their fortunes and smell communism in the air and, secondly, the local panjandrums, who regard us as rivals.
Neither Nohl nor Bracht were to be persuaded. Of the jurists, Bohnstedt is the only one with whom anything can be done. All in all we've made fruitless moves enough.
Tomorrow I am going to Engelskirchen for 2 days. Let me know at once the results of the shareholders' meeting.
A beginning has also been made with a community of the League.[3]
Your
Engels
65. Engels to Emil Blank. 24 May[228]
Dear Emil,
I arrived here in Cologne last Saturday .b The Rheinische Zeitung" will be appearing on 1 June. But if we are not at once to come up against obstacles, some preliminary arrangements must be made in London, and we are taking the liberty of entrusting these to you since there's nobody else there.
1. Arrange at any NEWSMAN'S for a subscription to The Telegraph (DAILY PAPER) and The Economist, WEEKLY PAPER, from the time this letter arrives until 1 July. The NEWSMAN, whose address you can give us to save being bothered again later on, should include both papers in one wrapper or paper band — in the way papers are customarily sent — and dispatch them daily, addressed to Mr W. Clouth, St Agatha, 12, Cologne, via Ostend.[229]
2. Please forward the enclosed letters. 3. Pay the cost of the subscription to the two papers, the postage of this letter, etc., etc., and charge them at once to the dispatch department of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, St Agatha, 12, Cologne, stating to whom the sum is to be sent, and it will be done at once.
The necessary capital for the newspaper has been raised. Everything is going well, all that remains is the question of the papers, and then we can start. We are already getting The Times and, for the first month, we need no other English papers than the two above-mentioned. Should you ever happen upon something worthy of note in another paper, we should be grateful if you would send it to us. Any expense will, of course, immediately be refunded. Papers containing detailed information on trade, the state of business, etc., etc., are also desirable. Write some time and let me know what papers are now to be had there, so that we know how we stand.
I didn't, of course, see Marie,(1) as I had to leave before she arrived. But I'll be going over there some time soon, when things here are really under way. Barmen, by the way, is more boring than ever and is filled with a general hatred for what little freedom they have. The jackasses believe that the world exists solely to enable them to make tidy profits and, since these are now at a low ebb, they are screeching gruesomely. If they want freedom they must pay for it, as the French and English have had to do; but these people think they ought to have everything for nothing. Here things are looking up a little, if not very much. The Prussians are still the same as ever, the Poles are being branded with lunar caustic and, at the moment of writing, Mainz is being bombarded by the Prussians because the Civic Guard arrested a few drunken and rampaging soldiers[230]—the sovereign National Assembly in Frankfurt hears the firing and doesn't seem to take any notice.[231] In Berlin Camphausen is taking it easy, while reaction, the rule of officials and aristocrats grows daily more insolent, irritates the people, the people revolt and Camphausen's spinelessness and cowardice lead us straight towards fresh revolutions. That is Germany as it now is! Adieu.
Your
F. E.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
66. Engels to Karl Friedrich Koppen. J September
My dear Koppen,
I return your article herewith. I should already have sent it before but had lost your address in the turmoil of the removal and the mass of business this involved.[232]
Marx will have told you how often we thought of you during the sleepless night of exile. I can assure you that you were the only one of the Berliners whom we recalled with pleasure. Come to that, the sleepless night of exile was pleasurable après tout* and I look back on it longingly from out of this tedious philistine farce known as the German revolution! But one must be able to make sacrifices for the dear fatherland, and the greatest sacrifice is to return to that fatherland and write leading articles for this gross and boorish public. Farewell.
Tout à voush
F. Engels
67. Marx to Engels. About 29 or 30 October[233]
Dear Engels,
As your letter only arrived this evening, there is no time left to make enquiries about bills. I haven't even time to go home. I send you the enclosed, which happens to be to hand and, in addition, a
68. Marx to Engels. First half of November
draft of 50 talers from Schulz on a citizen of Geneva" where you might also obtain help in other ways.
I sent 50 talers to you and Dronke in Paris a long time ago and at the same time sent your passport to Gigot in Brussels.
Since 11 October the paper has been appearing again, tale quale.b It is not the time now to go into details, as haste is necessary. As soon as you can, write some news items and longer articles. Now that everyone save Weerth is away, Freiligrath having only joined us a few days ago, I am up to my eyes and unable to undertake work of a more detailed kind, and in addition the public prosecutor's office is doing all it can to rob me of my time.
Write by return. Shall I send your underclothing, etc.? Plasmann ready to do so immediately.[234] Your father has paid him, by the way.
By the way, your old man has written to Gigot asking where you are. He wants, so he says, to send you some money. I sent him your address.
Your
K. Marx
[From Louis Schulz]
P. S. Should be obliged if you would open enclosed letter to J. Köhler by the Lake, or rue du Rhône, and deliver same, whereupon he will pay you 250 fr. for my account against sight draft on me. Friendly greetings.
Louis Schulz
68
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LAUSANNE
[Cologne, first half of November 1848]
Dear Engels,
I am truly amazed that you should still not have received any money from me. / (not the dispatch department) sent you 61 talers ages ago, 11 in notes, 50 as a bill, to Geneva, enclosed in a letter to the address you gave. So make inquiries and write immediately. I have a postal receipt and can reclaim the money.
I had further sent 20 talers to Gigot and, later, 50 to Dronke for all of you, each time out of my cashbox. A total of some 130 talers.
Tomorrow I shall send you some more. But inquire about the money. The bill included a note recommending you to one of Lausanne's financial philistines.
I am short of money. 1 returned from my journey with 1,850 talers; I received 1,950 from the Poles. I spent 100 while still on my journey. I advanced 1,000 to the newspaper (and also to yourself and other refugees). This week there are still 500 to be paid for the machine. Balance 350. And withal I haven't received a cent from the paper.[235]
As regards your editorship, I 1) announced in the very first issue that the committee was to remain unchanged,(1) 2) explained to the idiotic reactionary shareholders that they are at liberty to regard any of you as no longer belonging to the editorial staff, but that 1 am at liberty to pay as high fees as I wish and hence that they will be no better off financially.
It would have been, perhaps, more sensible not to advance so large a sum for the newspaper, as I have 3-4 court actions hanging over me,[236] can be locked up any day and then pant for money as doth the hart for cooling streams. But whatever the circumstances, this fort had to be held and the political position not surrendered.
The best thing — once you have settled the financial business in Lausanne — is to go to Berne and carry out your proposed plan. Besides, you can write for anything you want. Your letters always arrive in reasonably good time.
To suppose ihat I could leave you in the lurch for even a moment is sheer fantasy. You will always remain my friend and confidant as I hope to remain yours.
K. Marx
Your old man's a swine and we shall write him a damned rude letter.
69. Marx to Ferdinand Lassalle. 13 November
Dear Lassalle,
At your democratic-monarchist club[237] you should resolve the following:
1. General refusal to pay taxes—to be advocated specially in rural areas;
2. Dispatch of volunteer corps to Berlin; 3. Cash remittance to the Democratic Central Committee in Berlin.[238]
For the Rhenish Democratic Provincial Committee[239]
K. Marx
(Private)
Dear Lassalle,
If you could send me some money, whether it be the 200 talers or the amount for the loan certificates, you would greatly oblige me. Send it to my wife, Cecilienstrasse 7. I have had a summons[240]
today and it is generally believed that I shall be arrested tomorrow.
Your
Marx
70. Marx to Engels. 29 November
70 MARX TO ENGELS
IN BERNE
Cologne, 29 November [1848]
Dear Engels,
The papers have been sent to you. If this was not done sooner the tault lies with that jackass Korff who, because I was overworked, a circumstance aggravated by repeated summonses, has so far failed to carry out my orders.
In the meantime remain in Berne. I shall write to you as soon as you can come. Seal your letters better. One of them had been opened, as 1 indicated in the paper, without, of course, mentioning your name.[3]
Write in detail about Proudhon and, since your geography is good, about the dirty business in Hungary (nations swarming like bees).a Don't forget me b in the piece on Proudhon, since our articles are reprinted by a great many French newspapers.
Write something, too, attacking the Federal Republic, to which end Switzerland provides the best opportunity.c
K. Heinzen has published his old trashy piece attacking us.d
Our paper continues to stand by the principle of émeute,e but despite all my summonses in court, it has succeeded in sailing clear of the Code pénal}f* It is now very much en vogue. We are also issuing posters daily.[242]. La révolution marche? Write diligently.
I have devised an infallible plan for extracting money from your old man, as we now have none. Write me a begging letter (as crude as possible), in which you retail your past vicissitudes, but in such a way that I can pass it on to your mother. The old man's beginning to get the wind up.
I hope to see you again soon. Your
Marx First published abridged in Der Briefwech-Printed according to the original sei zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Published in English for the first Abt. Ill, Bd. 1, 1929 t i m e
71. Marx to Eduard von Müller-Tellering. 5 December
My dear Teilering,
You would already have had the missing issues/ but most of them are missing. Hence I am still busily trying to get hold of the copies you lack.
As regards your feuilleton, you must excuse me for not having read it through yet, owing to my being overworked. If it is not suitable for our newspaper you shall have it back.
Regarding the addresses, all your letters have arrived. As a precaution, write to Herr Werres, Unter Huthmacher 17. The address is wholly above suspicion.
Just now our newspaper is 5am sou.h But the subscribers [...]c
The jackasses are at last beginning to feel that our prophecies have invariably been right; unless we're suppressed by the government we shall have surmounted our troubles by the beginning of January, and then I shall do everything in my power to reward you in accordance with your services. Your articles are incontestably the best we receive, completely in line with our own tendency, and since they have been reprinted from our paper by French, Italian and English periodicals, you are contributing a great deal to the enlightenment of the European public 24S
I cannot describe to you what sacrifices in terms of money and patience I have had to make to keep the newspaper going. The Germans are crack-brained jackasses.
Give my kindest regards to your wifed and rest assured of my constant friendship.
Yours
K. Marx
Published in Englisn for the first time
72. Engels to Marx. 28 December
Dear Marx,
How are things? Now that Gottschalk and Anneke have been acquitted,[244] shan't I be able to come back soon? The Prussian curs must surely soon tire of meddling with juries. As I have said, if there are sufficient grounds for believing that I shall not be detained for questioning, I shall come at once. After that they may, so far as I'm concerned, place me before 10,000 juries, but when you're arrested for questioning you're not allowed to smoke, and I won't let myself in for that.
In any case the whole September affair[245] is crumbling away to nothing. One after another they're going back. So write.
Apropos, some money would come in very handy towards the middle of January. By then you should receive plenty.
Your E.
73. Marx to Wilhelm Stieber. About 29 December[246]
The editorial department is in receipt of your letter and accepts the correction dated Frankfurt.(1) As to your threat of a libel action, this only reveals your ignorance of the Code pénal, whose paragraph relating to libel does not apply to the report appearing in No. 177.[24]' Moreover, to set your mind at rest be it said that this report was sent to us by a Frankfurt Deputy[3] before the Neue
Preussische Zeitung divulged the same news. Your earlier activities in Silesia did not seem to us to belie the contents of the said report, although we did, on the other hand, think it strange that you should exchange your more remunerative and honourable post in Berlin for one which, albeit legal, is precarious and equivocal. m
As to your protestations regarding your activities in Silesia,b we shall endeavour to place material at your disposal, either publicly or in private, as you wish.
On the grounds of their novelty, we shall excuse the lectures on democracy and democratic organs contained in your letter.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
Published in English for the first time 1849
74
Endnotes
[191] Engels returned to Paris at the end of December 1847 after a few days' stay in Brussels, where he had arrived from England soon after Marx, on about
[158] Xhe German Workers' Society was founded by Marx and Engels in Brussels at the end of August 1847, its aim being the political education of the German workers who lived in Belgium and dissemination of the ideas of scientific communism among them. With Marx, Engels and their followers at its head, the Society became the legal centre rallying the revolutionary proletarian forces in Belgium. Its most active members belonged to the Communist League. The Society played an important part in founding the Brussels Democratic Association. After the February 1848 revolution in France, the Belgian authorities arrested and banished many of its members.—122, 141, 153
[192] In 1843 Jules Michelet was dismissed from his teaching post for his democratic and anti-clerical convictions; his right to teach history at the Paris University was not restored till after the February 1848 revolution.—154
[193] Here Engels means the United commissions, an advisory social-estate body in Prussia elected by the Provincial Diets from their own members. Engels' article on Prussian finances, mentioned in the letter, has not been found.—155
[194] It is not known whether Engels carried out his intention. The review of Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy did not appear in La Réforme.—156
[195] Engels' letter to Bernays has not been found.—157
[196] At the end of February 1848 a revolution took place in France which was enthusiastically welcomed in Belgium. Alarmed by the scope of the democratic movement in the country, the Belgian authorities resorted to arrests and expulsion of German revolutionary emigrants. They arrested the Communist League members Wilhelm Wolff and Victor Tedesco. On 3 March Marx was ordered to leave Belgium in twenty-four hours. However, in the night of
[197] The Second Congress of the Communist League retained the seat of the Central Authority in London. Howe-er, as a revolution had broken out in France, Schapper, Bauer, Moll and other members of the London Central Authority intended to move to the Continent and decided to transfer their powers of general direction of the League to the Brussels District Committee headed by Marx. But the persecution of revolutionaries by the Belgian authorities impelled the Brussels Central Authority that had been formed to adopt on 3 March 1848 a decision to dissolve itself and to empower Marx to form a new Central Authority in Paris. Marx arrived in Paris on 5 March and took up this appointment. On 7 March the Paris Central Authority mentioned by Marx was formed. Engels was elected in his absence.—158 5 March have survived. Marx published an article on the persecution of revolutionary emigrants in Belgium in La Réforme, 12 March 1848 (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 567-68 and 581-82).—159
[198] -phe reference is to the arrest of Marx and his wife by the Belgian police (see Note 196).—159
[20] January 1845 (see this volume, p. 16), Marx intended to write a critical 20 xhe letter is not dated. The postmark shows that it was sent on 20 January review of Stirner's Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum at the end of December 1844 and originally wanted to publish it in the monthly Vorwärts! There is no information on whether this plan materialised. It is only known that two years later Marx and Engels scathingly criticised Stirner's book in their German Ideology (see present edition, Vol. 5, pp. 117-443).—14, 18 1845, but its contents prove that Engels wrote it over several days. An excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955; published in English in full for the first time in Letters of the Young Engels. I838-1845, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976.—15
[201] The news of the victory of the February revolution in France caused a widespread popular movement in the Rhine Province of Prussia and other parts of Germany. A demonstration of about five thousand workers and artisans, organised by the local community of the Communist League, was held in Cologne on 3 March before the town hall. A petition demanding universal suffrage, freedom of speech, press and assembly, armament of the people, labour protection, children's education at the public expense, etc., was presented to the magistrate. The meeting following the demonstration was dispersed by troops, and the leaders of the demonstration — Andreas Gottschalk, August Willich and Friedrich Anneke — were arrested and brought to trial (they were set free on 21 March when a revolution began in Prussia). Gottschalk, Willich and Anneke belonged to a group in the local community of the Communist League which was under the influence of 'true socialism' and, in contrast to Karl d'Ester, Roland Daniels and Heinrich Bürgers (below Engels calls them 'old friends'), displayed sectarian tendencies.—159
[202] Xhe information received by Engels concerning d'Ester was inaccurate. D'Ester was present at the sitting of the Cologne city council on 3 March 1848 and spoke for the inclusion of a number of the people's demands in the liberal memorandum under discussion to be presented to the Berlin authorities. His proposals were rejected.—159
[203] A movement for definitive secession from the German Empire and for bourgeois-democratic reforms arose in 1797 in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine seized by the armies of the French Republic. With the approval of the French commander-in-chief, General Hoche, a plan was drawn up in September 1797 to form a filial left-bank Rhine Republic (Cisrhenanische Republik) allied to France. However, as a result of General Bonaparte's victory over Austria the territories along the left bank of the Rhine were directly attached to France by the Campo Formio Treaty (November 1797).—160
[204] An extract from this letter was published in English for the first time in Labour Monthly, 1948, No. 3, III.—161 2 • ' This letter was published in English for the first time in Science and Society, New York, 1940, Vol. IV, No. 2.—167 168
[205] The German Democratic Society was formed in Paris after the February 1848 revolution. The Society was headed by petty-bourgeois democrats, Herwegh, Bornstedt and others, who campaigned to raise a volunteer legion of German refugees, with the intention of marching into Germany. In this way they hoped to carry out a revolution in Germany and establish a republic there. Marx and his followers in the Communist League opposed to this adventurist plan the tactics of uniting the German emigrants and organising their return to Germany individually to take part in the revolutionary struggle that was developing there. Late in April 1848 the volunteer legion moved to Baden, where it was dispersed by government troops. Black, red and gold were the colours symbolising German unity; the unity slogan was interpreted by the petty-bourgeois democrats as a call to establish in Germany a federation of autonomous provinces on the pattern of the Swiss Confederation.—162, 540
[206] There is no further information about the letters Marx intended to write to Maynz and Jottrand.—162
[6] The Hoh Family by Marx and Engels was published not in Hamburg by Hoffmann and Campe, but in Frankfurt am Main by Z. Löwenthal, founder of the Literarische Anstalt publishing house (owned by Joseph Rütten since the autumn of 1844).— 7
[207] Engels moved to Paris from Brussels about 21 March 1848.—164
[208] Neither Engels' letter to his mother nor his mother's letter quoted by Engels below has been found.—166
[211] The reference is to the organisation of a legion of German r
[212] The reference is to the attempts of Ledru-Rollin, Minister of the Interior, to renew the administrative staff of municipal councils and his decree of 14 March to abolish the privileged National Guard units of bourgeois and aristocrats.—
[213] This refers to the Utopian plans for the 'organisation of labour' with the help of a bourgeois state proposed by Louis Blanc as president of the Labour Commission set up by the Provisional Government on 28 February 1848 (it held its meetingsin the Luxembourg Palace). The Commission was dissolved by the Government after the popular action of 15 May 1848.—168
[5] Engels is referring to Kritik der Politik und National-Okonomie, a work which Marx planned to write. Marx began to study political economy at the end of 1843 and by spring 1844 he set himself the task of writing a criticism of bourgeois political economv from the standpoint of materialism and communism. The draft 'Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844' (see present edition. Vol. 3), written at that time, have reached us incomplete. Work on The Hoh Family forced Marx temporarily to interrupt his study of political economy until December 1844. In February 1845, just before his expulsion from Paris, he signed a contract for his Kritik der Politik und Nationalökonomie with the publisher Leske (see Note 27). In Brussels Marx continued to study the works of English, French, German, Italian and other economists and added several more notebooks of excerpts to those compiled in Paris, although his original plan for the book was not carried out.—6, 27, 94, 105, 532
[7] Heinrich Heine wrote to Marx from Hamburg on 21 September 1844 (see the new Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe—referred to in future as MEGA 2—Abt. III. Bd. 1, S. 443-44) telling him that a new collection of his poems, Neue Gedichte, had been published there. It contained romances, ballads and other poems including the satirical poem Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen, which was also published separately by Hoffmann and Campe. Heine sent Marx a copy of this poem for simultaneous publication in Vorwärts! and announcement of his new collection of verse in this and other newspapers (he promised to bring the ballads and other poems to Paris himself). On 19 October 1844 Vorwärts!, No. 84, carried Heine's preface to the separate edition of his poem. It was dated 17 October 1844 and entitled 'FI. Heines neue Gedichte'. It was preceded by an editorial introduction which accorded high praise to the poet's new work and in fact expressed Marx's point of view. The poem was published in full in Vorwärts! in late October-November 1844.—7
[214] The reference is to the elections to the National Guard, fixed for 18 March, and to the Constituent Assembly of the Republic, which originally were to be held on 5 April 1848. To hold the elections in a short time would have benefited the anti-revolutionary forces. That is why the demonstration of the Paris workers on 17 March, of which Engels writes above, demanded that the Provisional Government, besides withdrawing the troops from the capital, should postpone the elections to the National Guard till 5 April and to the Constituent Assembly till 31 May 1848. The Government was compelled to comply with these demands, but the elections to the Constituent Assembly were postponed only till 23 April.—168
[216] In mid-April Engels left Cologne and made a trip to towns of the Rhine Province of Prussia — Barmen, Elberfeld and others — to organise a subscription to the shares for the publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. During the trip he also acted as an emissary of the Communist League's Central Authority. He returned to Cologne on 20 May 1848.—170
[217] On 10 April 1848 a Chartist demonstration in London was dispersed by troops and special constables; the purpose of the demonstration was to present the third Chartist Petition to Parliament. Engels' letter to Harney has not been found.—171
[218] The subject is the prospects of the planned Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the first issue of which appeared on 31 May but was dated 1 June 1848. Marx and Engels began to prepare for the publication of a German revolutionary newspaper as early as March 1848 when they were in Paris (see this volume, p. 173). They regarded a proletarian periodical as an important step towards creating a mass party of the German proletariat based on the Communist League. Soon after their return to Germany, however, they realised that the conditions for the creation of such a party had not yet matured. Disunity and lack of political awareness made the German workers susceptible to the artisan and petty-bourgeois influences and particularist aspirations. Moreover it was senseless for the League to continue to work underground in the context of the revolution but the League was too weak and numerically small to serve as a rallying centre. Under these conditions the newspaper was to play an especially important role in the ideological and political education of the masses. It was also to become an organ of political guidance for the Communist League members, whom Marx and Engels advised to take an active part in the workers' organisations and democratic societies then being set up in Germany. It was decided to call the newspaper the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in order to stress that it was to continue the revolutionary-democratic traditions of the Rheinische Zeitung which was edited by Marx in 1842 and early 1843. In view of the specific conditions and the absence of an independent proletarian party, Marx, Engels and their followers entered the political scene as the Left, in fact proletarian, wing of the democratic movement. This predetermined the stand adopted by the Neue Rheinische Zeitung which had as its subtitle Organ der Demokratie (Organ of Democracy). The editorial board included Karl Marx (editor-in-chief), Frederick Engels, Wilhelm Wolff, Georg Weerth, Ferdinand Wolff, Ernst Dronke and Heinrich Bürgers. In October 1848 Ferdinand Freiligrath also became an editor. The consistent revolutionary line of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, its militant internationalism, its articles containing political accusations against the Government aroused the displeasure of its bourgeois shareholders in the first months of its existence and led to attacks in the feudal monarchist and liberal bourgeois press. The editors were persecuted by the police and judicial authorities. On 26 September 1848, when a state of siege was declared in Cologne, the publication of the newspaper was suspended and was resumed only on 12 October. Despite all this, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung courageously defended the interests of revolutionary democracy and the proletariat. In May 1849, against the background of the general counter-revolutionary offensive, the Prussian Government issued an expulsion order against Marx on the grounds that he had not obtained Prussian citizenship. This arbitrary act and repressions against other editors led to the paper ceasing publication. The last issue, No. 301, printed in red ink, appeared on 19 May 1849. In their farewell address to the workers the editors wrote that 'their last word everywhere and always will be: emancipation of the working class' (see present edition, Vol. 9, p. 467).—171 173
[219] On 6 May 1848 Marx and Weerth arrived in Elberfeld to discuss with Engels problems connected with the publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung and the activity of the Communist League.—172
[220] An extract from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, 1934, and International Publishers, New York, 1935.—172, 270, 278, 291, 325, 361, 383, 389, 453
[221] Engels' letter to Wilhelm Blank has not been found.—172
[222] Moses Hess, Friedrich Anneke and other sectarians in the Communist League attempted to start a new paper in Cologne to succeed the Rheinische Zeitung of the early 1840s. The newspaper's programme, published by Hess and Anneke on 7 April, was very vague and narrowed the tasks of the planned publication, which they conceived as a local, provincial newssheet. Hess and his followers were prevented from realising their plan by the return of Marx and Engels to Cologne.—173
[223] There is no other information about the Italian and Spanish translations mentioned here of the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The first Spanish and Italian translations of the Manifesto appeared in 1872 and 1889 respectively.—
[224] Engels did not finish this translation. In the autumn of 1850 he helped Helen Macfarlane translate the Manifesto into English and it appeared in The Red Nos. 21-24, in November 1850.—173 Republican,
[225] The Elberfeld political club, which was formed soon after the March revolution in Prussia, advocated a constitutional monarchy and gradual reforms.—173
[226] Presumably Engels means Marx's letter to Ewerbeck concerning the Paris communities of the Communist League; this letter has not been found.—174
[227] The shareholders of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung were to meet in Cologne in May 1848, before the newspaper started publication. The shareholders from other towns who could not attend the meeting in person sent in proxies for the newspaper's editors or other persons in Cologne.—174
[228] An extract from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975.—175, 210
[229] Here and below Engels gives the addresses of the editorial office and the dispatch department of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung which at the beginning was printed by Clouth (12 St Agatha) and from 30 August 1848 by Dietz (17 Unter Hutmacher).— 175
[230] In the spring of 1848 the Polish national liberation uprising broke out in the Grand Duchy of Posen subject to Prussia. The Prussian General Pfuel ordered that all the insurgents who had been taken prisoner should be shaved and their hands and ears branded with silver nitrate. In May 1848 a clash took place between the soldiers and the civic militia in Mainz, which the fortress commander H user used as a pretext to send troops to disarm the latter. The conflict was discussed in the Frankfurt National Assembly which, however, did not take any serious measures to stop the arbitrary actions of the Prussian military authorities.—176
[231] The all-German National Assembly, which opened on 18 May 1848 in Frankfurt am Main, was convened for the purpose of unifying the country and drawing up its constitution. The liberal majority of the Assembly turned it into a debating club engaged in fruitless discussions such as on the disarmament of the civic militia in Mainz.—176
[232] The editorial office of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was removed at the end of August to 17 Unter Hutmacher (see Note 229). There is no information about the article by Koppen who might have sent it in after meeting Marx in Berlin in August 1848 when Marx went there on business connected with the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. By the 'sleepless night of exile' Engels presumably meant the time Marx and he spent abroad before the 1848 revolution.—177
[233] On 26 September 1848 the Prussian authorities, fearing the growing revolutionary-democratic movement, declared a state of siege in Cologne (it was lifted on 2 October). By order of the military command political organisations and associations were banned, the civic militia disbanded, democratic newspapers, including the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, suspended, and an order issued for the arrest of Engels and a few other editors. Engels and Dronke had to leave Cologne. For a time Engels lived in hiding in Barmen. On 5 October Engels and Dronke arrived in Paris after a short stay in Belgium whence they were expelled by the police. Dronke remained in the French capital and wrote to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung from there, while Engels started on foot for Switzerland via the south-west of France. About 24 October he arrived in Geneva and at the beginning of November moved to Lausanne (these facts served as a basis for establishing the date of this letter and those by Marx which followed and were not dated); Engels arrived in Neuchâtel on 7 November and in Berne on 9 November. He stayed there until mid-January 1849 when it was possible for him to return to Germany. Engels' letter written to Marx from Geneva has not been found.—177, 185,
[234] In 1848 Engels lived at Plasmann's, owner of a stationery firm and a shareholder of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. His address was: Köln, In der Höhle, 14.—178
[235] The discontent of the bourgeois shareholders over the political line of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung grew particularly strong after it defended the June proletarian insurgents in Paris. These shareholders refused to finance and support the newspaper any longer. So in August and September 1848 Marx made a trip to Berlin and Vienna to raise funds for the further publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Wladislaw Köscielski gave him about 2,000 talers on behalf of the Polish democrats. The interruption in publication caused by the state of siege in Cologne aggravated the newspaper's financial position. Marx was practically compelled to take upon himself most of the expenses and he spent his share of the inheritance from his father — about 7.000 talers — to purchase an expensive quick printing press.—179
[236] Early in July 1848 legal proceedings were instituted against Marx because of his article 'Arrests' published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 176-79), exposing the arbitrary actions of the Prussian authorities.
[237] On 1 November 1848 the King of Prussia transferred power to the openly counter-revolutionary Brandenburg-Manteuffel Government. It decided on a coup d'état which was successful and led to the dissolution of the National Assembly on 5 December. The very first steps of this government aroused a protest campaign in democratic circles, especially in the Rhine Province, which sought to unite the opposition forces. In Düsseldorf, in particular, for 14 November a joint meeting was announced for this purpose of the local People's Club, the Union for the establishment of a democratic monarchy, the General Civil Union, and the civic militia (it was probably this meeting that Marx called the democratic-monarchist club). At this meeting Lassalle put forward Marx's plan of actions.—180
[238] The Central Committee of German Democrats was set up in June 1848 at the first democratic congress in Frankfurt am Main convened with the aim of uniting the local democratic associations. The second all-German democratic congress in Berlin (26-30 October 1848) elected a new Central Committee.—
[239] This refers to the Rhenish District Committee of Democrats set up at the first district congress of democrats of the Rhine Province and Westphalia (13-14 August 1848). The committee directed the activity of the democratic organisations in the Rhineland, Marx playing a prominent role in it.—180 256 Early in July 1848 legal proceedings were instituted against Marx because of his article 'Arrests' published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 176-79), exposing the arbitrary actions of the Prussian authorities. At the beginning of October 1848 the Cologne Public Prosecutor started an investigation against Marx and other newspaper editors for publishing anonymously Georg Weerth's series of feuilletons Leben und Taten des berühmten Ritters Schnapphanski. At the end of October 1848 the Cologne Public Prosecutor began another investigation against Marx as the newspaper's editor-in-chief for publishing the proclamation of the republican Friedrich Hecker. The 'insult' to the Public Prosecutor and 'libel' against the police officers contained in the article 'Arrests' were the main accusations levelled at Marx and Engels at the trial held on 7 February 1849. The jury acquitted them.—179, 542 182
[240] On 14 November 1848 Marx was summoned to the examining magistrate for 'insulting' the Cologne Public Prosecutor Hecker in the article 'Public Prosecutor "Hecker" and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung' published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 129, 29 October 1848 (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 485-89).—180
[242] In order to give its readers prompt information on events, the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung often put out supplements to the main issue or a second edition. If the news was very important they printed special supplements and special editions in the form of posters.—181
[244] The arrest of Andreas Gottschalk and Friedrich Anneke, the leaders of the Cologne Workers' Association, on 3 July 1848 was the subject of Marx's article 'Arrests' which served as a pretext for accusing Marx and other editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung of insulting the Public Prosecutor and libelling police officers (see Note 236). On 23 December 1848, Gottschalk and Anneke were acquitted by a Cologne jury.—183
[245] The reference is to the state of siege declared in Cologne on 26 September 1848 and the persecution of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung's editors, Engels among them (see Note 233). On 3 October, though the state of siege had been lifted, the Public Prosecutor issued a warrant for Engels' arrest. Engels was able to return to Cologne only in mid-January 1849.—183
[246] This is a draft reply to the letter sent from Berlin on 26 December 1848 by Wilhelm Stieber to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. In it Stieber tried to disprove information on his spying activities in Silesia during and after the Silesian weavers' uprising in 1844 (he went there disguised as an artist, under the name Schmidt), and on his secret mission to Frankfurt am Main in September 1848 in connection with a popular uprising there. This information was given in a report from Frankfurt am Main published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 177, 24 December. Marx agreed to make a correction as regards Stieber's visit to Frankfurt (the supplement to No. 182 stated that he went there on private business) but did not disavow the information on his spying in Silesia. Later, in his Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne (end of 1852), exposing Stieber as an organiser of police persecution of the Communist League members and disclosing his attempts to blacken the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Marx quoted in full Stieber's letter to the newspaper editors of 26 December 1848. Marx stressed that the reply to Stieber was sent by another editor (see present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 435-36). It may be assumed that the final version of the letter was signed by Wilhelm Wolff, who was well aware of Stieber's activities in Silesia.—183
[24] Under the press laws existing in a number of German states, only publications exceeding 20 printed sheets were exempted from preliminary censorship. The size of the Rheinische Jahrbücher exempted it from censorship, but the police of the Grand Duchy of Hesse nevertheless confiscated the first volume of the journal which was published in Darmstadt in August 1845 and banned its publication altogether. The second volume was published in Belle-Vue, Switzerland, at the end of 1846.—16 20*
[3] August 1844. On 13 December 1844 Bernays was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and a fine.—4 '* Engels left Germany in November 1842 and lived for nearly two years in England, working in the office of a Manchester cotton-mill of which his father was co-proprietor.—4
[1] This is the earliest extant letter of Engels to Marx, written soon after Engels' return to Germany from England. On his way back to Germany at the end of August 1844, he stopped in Paris, where he met Marx. During the days they spent together they discovered that their theoretical views coincided, and they immediately began their first joint work, directed against the Young Hegelians. Engels finished his part before leaving Paris, while Marx continued to write his. At first they intended to call the book A Critique of Critical Criticism. Against Bruno Bauer and Co. But while it was being printed Marx added The Holy Family to the title. This meeting of Marx and Engels in Paris marked the beginning of their friendship, joint scientific work and revolutionary struggle. The extant original of this letter bears no date. The approximate time of its writing was determined on the basis of Engels' letter to Marx of 19 November 1844 (see this volume, pp. 9-14). This letter was published in English in full for the first time in: Marx and Engels. Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.—3
[86] Straubingers—travelling journeymen in Germany. Marx and Engels used this term for German artisans, including some participants in the working-class movement of that time, who were still largely swayed by guild prejudices and cherished the petty-bourgeois illusion that it was possible to return from capitalist large-scale industry to petty handicraft production.—63, 80, 138, 154, 161, 249, 346, 388, 394, 467, 47« t91, 498, 520
[199] The interpellation on the arrest and expulsion of Marx and his family was made by Bricourt at the sitting of the Chamber of Representatives of the Belgian Parliament on 11 March 1848.—159, 164