1849
Dear Marx,
Having recovered, after several weeks of sinful living, from my exertions and adventures,[233] I feel, firstly, a need to get down to work again (striking proof of this being the enclosed Magyar-Slav articlea), and, secondly, a need for money. The hitter is the more urgent and if by the time this arrives, you haven't yet sent me anything, do so forthwith, for I've been sans le soub these past few days, and it's impossible to touch anyone in this rotten town.
If only something worth writing about happened in this rotten country. But it's all local rubbish of the rotteniest kind. However I'll shortly be sending a few general articlesc about it. If I have to stay abroad much longer I shall go to Lugano, particularly if something blows up in Italy, as seems likely.
But I keep thinking that I shall soon be able to return. This lazing about in foreign parts, where you can't really do anything and are completely outside the movement, is truly unbearable. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that detention for questioning in Cologne is better than life in free Switzerland. So do write and tell me if there isn't some chance of my being treated as favourably as Bürgers, Becker,d etc., etc.[248] Raveaux is right: even in grace and favour Prussia[249] one is freer than in free Switzerland. Every little nonentity here is at one and the same time a police spy and an assommeur.* I saw an example of this on New Year's Eve.
Who the devil was responsible for inserting recently that boring religio-inoral article from Heidelberga on the March Association[250]? To my pleasure I have also noticed that Henricus occasionally exhales an article — witness the sighs extending over 2 issues on the subject of the Ladenberg circular.b
Our newspaper is now much quoted in Switzerland, the Berner Zeitung borrows a lot as does the National-Zeitung,c and this then goes the rounds of all the other papers. Also much quoted, more so than the Kölnische, according to the National, etc., etc., in Swiss papers in the French language.
You'll have included the advertisement.[6] Herewith a copy of ours in the Berner Zeitung. Greetings to the whole company.
Your E.
Missed the post yesterday. Today, then, I'll merely add that since 1 January the Neue Rheinische Zeitung has no longer been arriving here. Do ascertain whether it's being regularly dispatched. I've looked into the question of a subscription, but it's no good. I'd have to subscribe for a d/e year; I shan't be staying as long as that and anyway I haven't any money. As I said, it's important it should arrive here, not simply on my own account, but mainly because the Berner Zeitung, which is well disposed towards us and edited by a communist,f is doing everything to make it en vogue here.
First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen Printed according to the original F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, jgj3 Published in English for the first time A cartoon of Frederick William IV and the Prussian bourgeoisie drawn by Engels on the back of E. Voswinkel's letter to Marx (22 January-beginning of February) about
the elections to the Prussian Diet (1849)
75. Marx to Eduard von Müller-Tellering. 15 January
Dear Teilering,
You always calculate your posting days wrongly because you imagine that the post from Austria and Berlin arrives here regularly. But it's always 1-2 days late and is exceedingly irregular. I got your first letter from Vienna on the evening of the 10th. On the 11th I promptly sent a post-restante letter to Oderberg? enclosing 50 talers in money orders.[251] Hence you'll have to return to Oderberg in any case, so as to pick up the money.
You will receive the newspapers, provided you write and tell me, immediately you get back from Oderberg, whereabouts you intend to live in the interim.
Despite Geiger's malevolence, I hope to see the matter of your passport finally settled within 2-3 days. But you must also tell me where our Berlin friend is to send your passport to.
If you have to keep away from Vienna—which would be an irreparable loss to the paperh and would mean your appointing a deputy responsible for day-to-day information — Breslau0 would seem to me to be the most suitable place to stay. I frequently think sorrowfully of your wife,d who deserves a more comfortable lot.
I am enclosing an issue of the 'Neue Rheinische Zeitung', which will, I trust, be of interest to you on account of the leading article on the Magyars."
Write to me as soon as you possibly can. In France the fun will begin anew in the spring. The bourgeois republic's infamy has advanced too rapidly towards the 'heyday of its transgressions'.'
Yours
K. Marx
76. Marx to Ernst Dronke. 3 February
Dear Dronke,
Your letter, .passed on to me by Engels, I shall answer briefly as follows:
1. As regards your coming here: When I wrote 'Don't come to Germany until I write to you', Kratz had told me that your case was not yet quite settled.[252]
2. Later I wrote to Kapp instead of to you because Kapp was bombarding me with threatening letters. The draft I gave Kapp wasn't honoured by Korff. In the meantime I had declared at the shareholders' meeting that either Korff or I must resign from the paper.(1) Moreover, during this period Plasman had again sequestered the postage money, and the paper, as Engels discovered on his arrival, was expecting to announce its insolvency any day.
3. As regards the Meyerbeer business, I know nothing whatever about it. You will appreciate that in a situation in which the compositors were daily rebelling over a few talers, I would hardly have spurned 150 talers.
4. As regards my letter about Kapp, I was justified in writing it. During the most ghastly period of all, Kapp was threatening to attack us publicly. If you put yourself in our situation at that time, you will understand my vexation. As regards Weerth's comment (which, by the by, referred not to you, but to Imandt, who was writing to us incessantly), this is the first I have heard of it.
5. As regards the 25 talers remitted on 14 January, these were dispatched to you in the presence of witnesses via Ewerbeck's address. The Post Office here will provide information about this tomorrow. Nota bene: Kapp received 15 talers from me at the same time.
6. As regards my not answering, Lupus will testify that I wrote to "you frequently.
7. If the tone of one of my letters was waspish, this was, a) because I was going through an atrociously bad patch with the paper and was under attack from all the paper's correspondents and creditors, b) because, in a letter to Freiligrath, Imandt depicted you, Kapp, etc., as complaining bitterly about me, while the precious Beust, I think it is Beust (I am not quite sure), was sending similar letters here.
Within a few days the paper must either go under or else consolidate itself, in which case we shall immediately send you more money of which, at the moment, there is a complete lack. However the business of the 25 talers must be cleared up.
That I have constantly regarded you as co-editor of the paper is apparent not only from the new announcement in the various papers," but also from the fact that I placed your article about the expulsion of the Frankfurt refugee[6] under 'Cologne'.0
Your
Marx
[From Wilhelm Wolff]
In entire agreement with the above
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
77. Engels to Daniel Fenner von Fenneberg. 1 March
Dear Sir,
I would have replied to you before now had I not first had to consult various other people about your matter. I do not think it advisable for you to make any sort of public appearance here; out
78. Marx to Colonel Engels. 3 March
of craving for advancement, the chief of policea here is capable de
tout,b as we have experienced only today in the unjustified expulsion of a local Polish refugee. I would further advise you, should your passport not be absolutely impeccable, to choose any route to Paris other than via Cologne and Brussels. You would get through Cologne well enough, but you would undoubtedly be arrested at the Belgian border and transported by prison van to the French border, after having, perhaps, spent several days in prison. I myself experienced this 5 months ago,[233] and every day fresh reports reach us of these infamies perpetrated against the refugees by the Belgians. You even run the risk of having all your money taken from you by the scoundrels and not getting a farthing back, as happened to the refugee, von Hochstetter.
If I can be of service to you in any other way, it would be a pleasure.
Yours faithfully
F. Engels
78
MARX TO COLONEL ENGELS
IN COLOGNE
[Draft]
Cologne, 3 March [1849]
To Colonel Engels, Deputy Commandant Sir,
The day before yesterday two non-commissioned officersc of the 8th Company, 16th Infantry Regiment, came to my rooms to speak to me privately. I had left for Düsseldorf. They were therefore turned away. Yesterday afternoon two of these gentlemen again presented themselves and demanded a private inter-view.
I had them shown into a room where I joined them almost immediately. I invited the gentlemen to sit down and asked them what they wanted. They told me they wanted to know the name of the writer of the article (No. 233 of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung of 28 February) against Captain von Uttenhoven.[253] I replied to these gentlemen, 1) that the article in question had nothing to do with me since it had appeared below the line and was therefore an advertisement; 2) that they were at liberty to insert a refutation gratis; 3) that they were at liberty to sue the paper. Upon the gentlemen's remarking that the whole of the 8th Company felt themselves to be insulted by the advertisement, I returned that nothing but the signatures of all the members of the 8th Company would convince me of the accuracy of that statement, which in any case was irrelevant.
The non-commissioned officers thereupon declared that if I failed to name, to 'deliver up' the 'man', they would 'no longer be able to restrain their men', and 'evil would result'.
I told the gentlemen that little or nothing was to be achieved by trying to threaten or intimidate me. They then withdrew muttering under their breath.
Relaxation of discipline must have gone very far and all sense of law and order must have ceased if, like a robber band, a Company can send delegates to an individual citizen and attempt with threats to extort this or that confession from him. In particular, I fail to understand the meaning of the sentence: 'We can no longer restrain our men'.
Are these 'men', perhaps, to exercise jurisdiction on their own initiative, do these 'men' have other than legal resources at their command?
I must beg you, Sir, to institute an inquiry into this incident and to give me an explanation for this singular presumption. I would be sorry to be obliged to have recourse to publicity.
79. Marx to Colonel Engels. Before 15 April
79
MARX TO COLONEL ENGELS
IN COLOGNE
[Draft]
[Cologne, before 15 April 1849]
To Colonel Engels, Commandant Sir,
Being convinced that Royal Prussian non-commissioned officers" would not deny words spoken in private, I did not call in any witnesses to the conversation in question.b As to my alleged remark that 'the courts, as has recently been seen, can do nothing to me',[254] even my political opponents will concede that, were I to harbour such a foolish thought, I would not express it before a third party. And do not the non-commissioned officers themselves admit that I explained to them that things below the line are no concern of mine and that in any case I am responsible only for the section of the paper signed by me? Hence there was absolutely no reason to speak of my position vis-à-vis the courts.
I am all the happier to refrain from pressing for a further inquiry as it was my concern, not that the non-commissioned officers should be punished, but simply that they should be reminded, from the lips of their superiors, of the limits of their duties.
As for the kind remark with which you conclude, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung has demonstrated, by its silence over the recent friction among the military themselves, how great is its consideration for the prevailing mood of unrest.
80. Marx to Engels. Before 15 April
Dear Engels,
Leave out the article on B. Dietz until the facts have been ascertained. We shall ourselves write to Brussels on the subject.
By the way, try to find out the name of the printer's apprentice who reported the matter to Dietz without authority.
Your
Marx
[On the back of the letter]
Herr Engels, local
81. Marx to Engels. 23 April
Dear Engels,
Your letter didn't reach me till today,[255] as I had already left Bremen on Wednesday[3] morning. Nothing doing in Bremen. Rösing went bankrupt a year ago and is now living solely on the interest from what remains of his wife's capital. Hence nothing doing.
On the other hand I shall certainly be able to make shift here. As for the signature, cannot Werres sign?
As for interim money arrangements, as long as I'm away the following should be noted: before I left, Plasmann solemnly promised to make whatever advances were necessary. Perhaps St. Naut feels some scruple about resorting to this source. If necessary, do so yourself.
All this week the paper[3] has been very skimpy, which assorts ill with my present mission.
Warmest regards to my wife and the others. Write by return whatever happens, and keep your chin up. Les choses marcheront!'
Your
K. Marx
[Inside the envelope]
Address: Rohde, Merchant, Bleichenbrücke.
1913
Yours very truly
Karl Marx
82. Marx to Hermann Brehmer. 6 May
To Mr Brehmer in Breslauc
I warmly recommend to you the bearer of these lines, Mr Bruhn, whose name you will still recall from the events in Southern Germany last year.[256]
83. Marx to Eduard von Müller-Tellering. 6 May
Dear Teilering,
I warmly recommend to you the bearer, Mr. Bruhn, who is one of our principal agitators in Germany.
Yours very truly
Dr Karl Marx
84. Marx to Andreas Stifft. 6 May
Dear Stifft,
Post tot discrimina rerum,* I am glad to have an opportunity of reminding you of my existence. Each new number of the Vienna paperb gives me the real satisfaction of knowing beyond doubt that you have not been swallowed up by the counter-revolutionary monster.[257] I trust that we shall yet find ourselves seated side by side at a convention.
The bearer, Bruhn, is one of my best friends and a proficient, active revolutionary. I recommend him to you most highly.
Yours
K. Marx
85. Marx to Joseph Weydemeyer. 1 June[258]
IN FRANKFURT AM MAIN
[Bingen, 1 June 1849]
Dear Weydemeyer,
I beg you in my own and Freiligrath's names to take the printer of Freiligrath's poema to court for piracy and sue him for damages.
My general attorney is St. A. Naut in Cologne, and I should be much obliged if you would write to him about this matter.
Vale faveque.b
K. Marx
86. Marx to Engels. 7 June[259]
Dear Engels,
I am not writing to you at any great length in this letter. First I want you to tell me in your reply whether it arrives intact. I believe that letters are again being opened con amore.c Here a royalist reaction is in full swing, more barefaced than under Guizot, and comparable only to that after 1815. Paris is morne? On top of that the cholera is raging mightily. For all that, never has a colossal eruption of the revolutionary volcano been more imminent than it is in Paris today. Details to follow. I consort with the whole of the revolutionary party and in a few days' time I shall have all the revolutionary journals at my disposal.
As for the Palatinate-Baden envoys here, Blind, alarmed by a real or pretended attack of cholera, has moved into the country some hours away from Paris.
Quant ab Schütz, the following should be noted:
1. The Provisional Government has placed him in a false position by failing to keep him informed. The French demand des faitsc and where can he get them from if not a soul writes to him? Dispatches must reach him as often as possible. It is clear that at this moment he can achieve nothing. All that can be done is to throw dust in the eyes of the Prussian Government by enabling him to have frequent meetings with the leaders of the Montagnards.[260]
2. A second, unpardonable mistake on the part of the Gouvernement provisoire du Palatinatd is their entrusting a crowd of rotten Germans with this or that mission behind the back of the official envoy. This will have to cease once and for all if Schütz is to maintain at least the prestige of his position vis-à-vis the Montagnards and just now — vis-à-vis Prussia — that is the whole point of his mission.
Apart from that, .it goes without saying that he doesn't learn very much, since he consorts only with a few official Montagnards. I shall, incidentally, keep him always au courant*
For my part I must ask you to write to me at least twice a week regularly and immediately every time anything important happens.
The Kölnische Zeitung feuilleton on the Palatinate movement, dated Dürkheim an der Haardt, states among other things:
'Some anger has been aroused by Mr Marx, editor of the Rheinische Zeitung. He is said to have told the Provisional Government that since his time had not yet come, he intended temporarily to retire.'[8] How does that fit in? The miserable Germans here, with whom, by the way, I avoid any meeting, will seek to proclaim this throughout the whole of Paris. I therefore think it advisable for you to see that an item appears in the Karlsruher Zeitung or the
Mannheimer Abendzeitung stating expressly that I am in Paris as the representative of the democratic Central Committee. Another reason why I think this would be useful is that for the time being, as no immediate results are to be obtained here, the Prussians must be made to believe that the most frightful intrigues are going on here. 77 faut faire peur aux Aristocrates."
Rüge is a complete nonentity here. What is Dronke doing? You must, by the way, see that you raise money for me somewhere. You know that I spent the latest sums received pour faire honneur aux obligations de la 'Nouvelle Gazette Rhénane',,b and, in the present circonstances,[1]" I cannot live a completely retired life, still less get into financial difficulties.
If at all possible let me have an article in French in which you sum up the whole Hungarian affair.[261]
Show this letter to d'Ester, to whom my best regards. If I am to write to a different address, let me have it.
M.
Write to me at the following address: M. Ramboz, 45 rue de Lille
[On the back of the letter]
Herrn Fr. Engels, inquire at Dr d'Ester's.
87. Marx to Joseph Weydemeyer. 13 July
IN FRANKFURT AM MAIN
Paris, 13 July [1849] 45, rue de Lille Address: M. Ramboz
Dear Weydemeyer,
Dronke will already have written to tell you that you must sell the red newspapers at any price.[262]
I am here with my famille, sans le sou.*[263] And yet an opportunity has come my way of making 3,000-4,000 fr. in a few weeks. For my pamphlet against Proudhon,b which he has done everything in his power to suppress, is beginning to sell here, and it is up to me to infiltrate reviews of it into the more important papers, thus necessitating a second edition. But for this to be of any help I would have to buy up the copies still available in Brussels and Paris in order to become sole propriétaire.
300-400 talers would enable me to carry out this operation and at the same time maintain myself here during the early days. You might, perhaps, be able to help me in this.
Namely, as follows: A lady in Rheda — Liming is also in touch with her — sent 1,000 talers to Carl Post for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, but recovered the money when that paper went under. Might she not, perhaps, be persuaded by your intervention to make me this advance? My claim to such an advance is, I believe, all the greater as I contributed more than 7,000 talers to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung which, after all, was a party enterprise.
If at all possible, pursue this matter, but without mentioning it to anybody. I tell you that, unless help is forthcoming from one quarter or another, I shall be perdu" since my family is also here and the last piece of my wife's jewellery has already found its way to the pawnbrokers.
I await your reply by return. Your
K. Marx
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
88. Marx to Caroline Schöler. 14 July
88
MARX TO CAROLINE SCHÖLERa
IN COLOGNE
Paris, 14 July 1849 45, rue de Lille
Dear Lina,
Would you be so kind, when you write to my wife, as to enclose a note to the red Orlando furiosob? You must help me a little in the act I am putting on.
Yours very sincerely
K. Marx
89. Engels to Jenny Marx. 25 July[264]
You as well as Marx will be wondering why you have not heard from me for so long. En voici les causes? On the same day as I wrote to Marx (from Kaiserslautern) there came news that the Prussians had occupied Homburg, thereby cutting off communica-tions with Paris. So I couldn't send the letter off and went to join Willich. In Kaiserslautern I had completely disassociated myself from the soi-disantd revolution; but when the Prussians arrived, I couldn't resist the urge to take part in the war. Willich being the only officer who was any good, I joined him and became his adjutant. I was in four engagements, two of them fairly important, particularly the one at Rastatt,[265] and discovered that the much-vaunted bravery under fire is quite the most ordinary quality one can possess. The whistle of bullets is really quite a trivial matter, and though, throughout the campaign, a great deal of cowardice was in evidence, I did not see as many as a dozen men whose conduct was cowardly in battle. But all the more 'brave stupidity'. Enfin,[3] I came through the whole thing unscathed, and au bout du compte,[13] it was as well that one member of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was present, since the entire pack of democratic blackguards were in Baden and the Palatinate, and are now bragging about the heroic deeds they never performed. It would have been said again that the gentlemen of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung were too cowardly to fight. But of all the democratic gentry, the only ones to fight were myself and Kinkel. The latter joined our corps as a musketeer and did pretty well; in the first engagement in which he took part, his head was grazed by a bullet and he was taken prisoner.
Having covered the withdrawal of the Baden army, our corps entered Switzerland 24 hours later than everyone else, and yesterday we arrived here in Vevey. During the campaign and the march through Switzerland it was quite impossible for me to write so much as a line. But now I hasten to send some news, and write to you with all the more dispatch for having heard — somewhere in Baden — that Marx had been arrested in Paris. Since we never received any newspapers, we learnt nothing. Whether or not it is true, I have never been able to find out. You can imagine the state of anxiety I am in as a result, and I beg you most urgently to set my mind at rest and to put an end to my doubts about Marx's fate. Since I have had no confirmation of this rumour of Marx's arrest, I still hope it is false. But that Dronke and Schapper are in jug, I can hardly doubt. Enough — if Marx is still at liberty send him this letter with the request that he write to me immediately. If he should not feel safe in Paris, he will be completely safe here in the Vaud Canton. The government describes itself as red and partisane de la révolution permanente." In Geneva likewise. Schily from Trier is there; he held a command in the Mainz corps.
If I get any money from home, I shall probably go to Lausanne or Geneva and see what I can do. Our column, which fought well, bores me and there isn't anything to do here. In batde, Willich is brave, cool-headed and adroit, and able to appreciate a situation quickly and accurately, but when not in battle he is a plus ou moins" tedious ideologistb and a true socialist. Most of the people in the corps whom one can talk to have been sent elsewhere.
If only I could be sure that Marx is at liberty! I have often thought that, in the midst of the Prussian bullets, my post was much less dangerous than that of others in Germany and especially Marx's in Paris. So dispel my uncertainty soon.
Tout à vousc
Engels
Address: F. Engels, réfugié allemand, Vevey, Suisse (If possible under cover as far as Thionville or Metz.)
90. Marx to Ferdinand Freiligrath. 31 July —
Dear Freiligrath,
I must confess that I am much astonished by Lassalle's behaviour. I had approached him personally and, since I myself had at one time made the countess d a loan and was, besides, aware of Lassalle's liking for me, it would never have occurred to me that he would compromise me in this way. On the contrary, I had impressed upon him the need for the utmost discretion. The direst straits are better than public begging. I have written to him on the subject.[266] I find the business unspeakably annoying. Parlons de politique,3 since it will distract us from this private unpleasantness. In Switzerland things are becoming ever more com-plicated and now, as regards Italy, there is,Savoy into the bargain. It would seem that, if needs be, Austria proposes to recoup her loss of Hungary at Italy's expense. The incorporation of Savoy by Austria would, however, be the undoing of the present French government if tolerated by the latter. The majority in the French Chamber is clearly falling apart. The Right is splitting up into Philippists pure and simple, Legitimists who vote with the Philippists, and Legitimists pure and simple, who have recently been voting with the Left.[267] What Thiers and company are planning is to make Louis Napoleon Consul for ten years, until the coming-of-age of the Count of Parisb who will then replace him. If, as is almost certain, the assemblée reimposes the droits" on drink,[268] it will arouse the antagonism of all the wine-growers. With each reactionary measure it alienates yet another section of the population.
But most important of all just now is England. We must have no illusions about the so-called Peace Party,[269] of which Cobden is the acknowledged leader. Nor should we have any illusions about the 'unselfish enthusiasm' of the English for Hungary, which has resulted in the organisation of meetings throughout the country.
The Peace Party is simply a cloak for the FREE-TRADE Party. The same content, the same object, the same leaders. Just as, at home, the Free Traders attacked the aristocracy in its material basis with the repeal of the Corn and Navigation Laws,[270] so now in their foreign policy, they are attacking it in its European connections and ramifications — by seeking to break the Holy Alliance.[271] The English Free Traders are radical bourgeois who wish to break radically with the aristocracy in order to rule without let or hindrance. What they overlook is the fact that they are thus, malgré eux,d bringing the people onto the stage and into power. Exploitation of the peoples, not by means of medieval warfare but solely by means of trade warfare — that's your Peace Party. Cobden's behaviour in the Hungarian affair had an immediately practical nexus. Russia is now seeking to negotiate a loan. Cobden, the representative of the industrial bourgeoisie, forbids this deal of the financial bourgeoisie's, and in England the Bank is ruled by industry, whereas in France industry is ruled by the Bank.
Cobden's attack on Russia has been more formidable than any of either Dembinski or Görgey.a He revealed how pitiable was the condition of her finances. She is, he says, the MOST WRETCHED NATION. Each year the Siberian mines bring the State no more than £700,000: the duty on spirits brings it 10 times as much. True, the gold and silver reserve in the vaults of the Bank of Petersburg amounts to £14,000,000, but it serves as a metallic reserve for a paper circulation of £80,000,000. Hence, if the Tsar b dips into the vaults of the Bank, he will depreciate the paper money, and thus bring about a revolution in Russia herself. Consequently, the proud English bourgeois exclaims, the absolutist colossus cannot stir unless we make him a loan, and this we shall not do. Once again we are waging, by purely bourgeois means, the bourgeoisie's war against feudal absolutism. The golden calf is mightier than all the calves on the thrones in the world. Of course the English FREE TRADERS also have a direct interest where Hungary is concerned. Instead of Austrian trade barriers, as hitherto, a trade agreement and some sort of FREE TRADE with Hungary. The money, which they are now without doubt secretly remitting to the Hungarians, they will assuredly get back 'with profit and interest' in retourc by way of trade.
The English bourgeoisie's attitude to continental despotism is a reversal of the campaign they conducted against the French from 1793 to 1815. The importance of this development cannot be overrated.
Kindest regards to you and your wifed from me and my wife.
Your
K. Marx
91. Marx to Engels. End of July
91
MARX TO ENGELS
IN VEVEY
[Paris, end of July 1849]
Dear Engels,
I have suffered a great deal of anxiety on your account and was truly delighted when yesterday I received a letter in your own hand.a I had got Dronke (who is here) to write to your brother-in-law0 asking for news of you. He, of course, knew nothing.
My whole family is here[26]'; the government wanted to banish me to Morbihan, the Pontine marshes of Brittany.[272] So far I have frustrated their intention. But if I am to write to you in greater detail, both about my own circumstances here and about affairs in general, you must let me have a safer address, for things are really appalling here.
You now have the best opportunity to write a history of or a pamphlet on the Baden-Palatinate revolution.[273] Had you not taken part in the actual fighting, we couldn't have put forward our views about that frolic. It would be a splendid chance for you to define the position of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung vis-à-vis the democratic party generally. I am positive that the thing will sell and bring you money.
I have embarked on negotiations with a view to starting a politico-economic (monthly) periodical in Berlin which would have to be largely written by us two.[274]
Lupusc is also in Switzerland, I believe in Berne. Weerth was here yesterday; he is setting up an agency in Liverpool. Red Wolffd is living here with me. Finances are, of course, in a state of chaos.
Freiligrath is in Cologne now as heretofore. If my wife were not in an état par trop intéressant," I would gladly leave Paris as soon as it was financially possible to do so.
Farewell. Convey my kindest regards to Willich and write by return to the address: M. Ramboz, rue de Lille, 45.
Your
K. M.
92. Marx to Joseph Weydemeyer. End of July[275]
Dear Weydemeyer,
I have heard from Dronke that it's no go with the Westphalian lady.a Well, it can't be helped.
Now I should appreciate your advice as to how best to publish pamphlets.
I should like to start with the pamphlet on wages of Which only the beginning appeared in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung}" I would write a short political foreword to it on the present status quo. Do you think that, e.g., Leske would be agreeable? But he would have to pay, as soon as he had the manuscript in his hands, and pay well, since I know that this pamphlet will attract and will find a mass of subscribers in advance. My present financial état" will not permit me to settle my outstanding compte6, with Leske.[276]
Were Leske then to find that the thing is well received, we could continue in this way.
Yesterday I had a letter from Engelsc; he is in Switzerland and, as Willich's adjutant, has taken part in four encounters.
The sword of Damocles still hangs over my head; my expulsion' has neither been rescinded nor, for the moment, is it being enforced.
Awkward though the present state of affairs may be for our personal circumstances, I am nevertheless among the satisfaits. Les choses marchent très biena and the Waterloo suffered by official democracy may be regarded as a victory.[277] 'Governments by grace of God' are taking it upon themselves to avenge us on the bourgeoisie, and to chastise them.
One of these days I may perhaps send you a short article for your paperb on the state of affairs in England.[278] Just now I find it too boring, having already discussed the matter in a number of private letters.
Write to me direct and to my own address: 45, rue de Lille, Monsieur Ramboz.
My best regards to your wifec and yourself from my wife and me. The former is très souffrante, conséquence naturelle de son état par trop intéressant.
Adieu, mon cher,d and reply soon.
Your
K. M.
93. Marx to Joseph Weydemeyer. Mid-August
Dear Weydemeyer,
I will gladly fall in with Riihl's suggestion[279] if he agrees to take over the whole of the business side, at which I am no good and for which he will be paid a commission.
1) But I have no publisher on hand to make the necessary advances,
94. Marx to Engels. 17 August
2) the subscription lists seem to me superfluous. Announce-ments in the Westdeutsche and other papers in the Rhineland and elsewhere would achieve the same purpose. The thing should be advertised particularly in the Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig and Breslau[3] papers.
The news about your paperb is very bad. I shall at once write and inform Naut, the trusty old business manager of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and acquaint you with the result.[280]
You would already have had my article' but for the fact that the illness of my wife and all the children has meant that I have been a kind of male nurse for the past week-Best regards to your wife.
Your
K. M.
I hope for a reply as soon as possible.
94
MARX TO ENGELS[228]
IN VEVEY
Paris, 17 August [1849] Dear Engels,
I don't know whether my first letter — in reply to the first one you sent my wifed—arrived safely, since your address was very uncertain. I would have already replied to your second[281] had I not been prevented by the fact that the whole of my family here was ill. Let me repeat once again how anxious my wife and I were on your account and what a delightful surprise it was to have definite news of you.
You will see from the date that, as a result of my protest, the Ministry of the Interior has for the time being left me unmolested here in Paris. The Morbihan département, to which I had been directed, is lethal at this time of year — the Pontine marshes of Brittany.[282] It would not be prudent just now to write about the 13 June affair.[260] I don't believe, or at least don't know whether secrecy of the mails is being observed.
The general situation here may be summed up in a couple of words: the majority disintegrating into its original, mutually hostile elements, Bonapartism hopelessly compromised, ill-will among the peasants because of the retention of the 45 centimes, the wine-growers furious at the threatened retention of the tax on drink,[268]
the current of public opinion once again anti-reactionary, in the Chamber, now prorogued, and in the Ministry, reaction, growing exclusive and concerned with expelling the Barrot-Dufaure clique from the Cabinet.[283] As soon as this comes about you can look for an early revolutionary resurrection.
I don't know whether in Switzerland you have any chance of following the English movement. The English have taken it up again at exactly the same juncture at which it was broken off by the February revolution. As you are aware, the Peace Party[269] is nothing but the FREE-TRADE party under a new guise. But this time the industrial bourgeoisie is acting in a manner even more revolutionary than during the ANTI-CORN LEAGUE AGITATION.[270] In two ways: 1) the aristocracy, whose roots have been attacked at home by the repeal of the Corn Laws and the Navigation Acts, is further to be ruined in the sphere of foreign policy, in its European ramifications. Reversal of Pitt's policy. Anti-Russian-Austrian-Prussian, in a word, pro Italy and Hungary. Cobden has formally threatened to proscribe bankers who make loans to Russia, has unleashed a veritable campaign against Russian finances. 2) Agitation for universal suffrage, in order to effect the total political severance of the TENANTS from the landed aristocracy, to give the towns an absolute majority in Parliament, to nullify the House of Lords. Financial reform, in order to curb the Church and cut off the political revenues of the aristocracy.
Chartists and Free Traders have joined hands in these two propaganda campaigns. Harney and Palmerston apparently friends. At the last meeting held in London, O'Connor and Colonel Thompson both of one mind.[284]
Consequences of this economic campaign against feudalism and Holy Alliance incalculable.
Hungary splendid. But this rotten Prussia? Qu'en dis-tu?* The pallid canailleb are now being fattened in Saxony, Baden, the
95. Marx to Engels. 23 August
Palatinate. If they send an army to the aid of the Austrians, it will be so contrived that they themselves remain in Bohemia and wax fat there. But wretched Prussia — I only fear that it's too craven — perdu* as soon as it participates in the Hungarian affair, which in any case is turning into a guerre universelle.
Maintenant, mon cher, que faire de notre part? Il faut nous lancer dans une entreprise littéraire et mercantile, j'attends tes propositions.0
Red Lupus is here, in the same house as myself; Dronke in Paris likewise, mais c'est un tout petit homme de l'école de E. Meyen." Lupus' is in Zurich. Address: Dr. Lüning. You don't need to write separately to M. Ramboz. C'est mon pseudonyme?
So the address is simply: Monsieur Ramboz, 45, rue de Lille. Salut!
Ch. M.
95
MARX TO ENGELS[43]
IN LAUSANNE
[Paris,] 23 August [1849]
Dear Engels,
I am being banished to the Morbihan département, the Pontine marshes of Brittany.[272] I need hardly say that I shall not consent to this veiled attempt on my life. So I am leaving France.[285]
They won't give me a passport for Switzerland, hence I must go to London, and that tomorrow. In any case, Switzerland will soon be hermetically sealed and the mice would be trapped all at one go-
Besides, in London there is a positive prospect of my being able to start a German newspaper.a I am assured of part of the funds.
So you must leave for London at once. In any case your safety demands it. The Prussians would shoot you twice over: 1) because of Baden, 2) because of Elberfeld.[286] And why stay in a Switzerland where you can do nothing?
You will have no difficulty in coming to London, whether under the name of Engels or under the name of Mayer. As soon as you say you want to go to England, you will receive a one-way passport to London from the French Embassy.
I count on this absolutely. You cannot stay in Switzerland. In London we shall get down to business.
For the time being my wife will remain here. Continue to write to her at the same address: 45, rue de Lille, M. Ramboz.
But once again, I confidently count on you not to leave me in the lurch.
Your
K. M. Lupusb is at Dr Lüning's, Zurich. Write and tell him also about my plan.
96. Engels to Joseph Weydemeyer. 23 August[287]
Dear Weydemeyer,
Post tot discrimina rerumc—after umpteen arrests in Hesse and the Palatinate,[288] after 3 weeks of sybaritic living in Kaiserslautern, after a glorious 4 weeks' campaign in which, for a change, I buckled on my sword-belt and acted as Willich's adjutant, after 4 weeks of tedious cantoning with the refugee detachment in the Vaud Canton, I am at last finding my feet here in Lausanne. The very first thing I shall do is sit down and compose a merry tale of the whole Palatinate-Baden frolic.a But since I no longer have any contact with Germany and do not even know which towns are or are not under martial law, I don't know what publisher to approach. I'm no longer acquainted with such folk. You are on the spot and hence will be better able to say which are the right publishers with whom to negotiate something of this kind; it will, of course, be quite innocuous and will not involve any risk of confiscation or prosecution. There might be such a one in Frankfurt. But he must have money. Please be good enough to write to me about this, if possible by return, so that I can take the necessary steps at once.
I recently saw your red Becker,b very jaunty, in Geneva; he was tippling with the popular man, Esselen, and other easy-going diis minorum gentiumc in the country.
Warm regards to your wife and all our acquaintances
from your
Engels
97. Engels to Jakob Lukas Schabelitz. 24 August
Dear Schabelitz,
I am most obliged to you for promptly forwarding a letter to me. Since I cannot have my letters sent direct and knew of no other address, I was compelled to put you to this trouble. You may be receiving one or two more for me and would, perhaps, be kind enough to send these on to me also.
I am at present stuck in Lausanne where I am writing my reminiscences of the farcical Palatinate-Baden revolution.[3] You know me too well to credit me with political participation in this affair which was lost before it began. In Karlsruhe and Kaiserslautern I poked quiet fun at the provisional government's blunders and lack of resolution, I refused all posts, and it was not until the Prussians arrived that I joined Willich at Offenbach and took part in the campaign as his adjutant. Now at headquarters, now in the face of the enemy, the whole time in correspondence with the High Command, in constant touch with d'Ester, who, as 'red camarilla', was spurring on the government, in various engagements and, finally, at the battle of Rastatt,[265] I had the opportunity of seeing a great deal and learning a great deal. As you know, I am sufficiently critical not to share the illusions of the run-of-the-mill, vociferous republicans and to detect the desponden-cy lurking beneath the bravado of the leaders.
As befits the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the thing will take a view of the affair different from that of other prospective accounts. It will disclose many a shabby trick and, in particular, will contain much that is new concerning the goings-on in the Palatinate, about which hitherto virtually nothing has been known. It won't be big — about 4-6 sheets.
Up till now I have not had leisure enough to look round for a publisher. I would not care to send the manuscript to Germany, there is a danger of its being intercepted in the post. Since I am largely unfamiliar with the book trade in Switzerland, I thought I would write and ask you whether your old manb might be the kind of publisher who would accept such work and — NB—pay for it, for I need money, il faut que l'on vive? That the thing will be pleasant to read goes without saying, and my name is guarantee enough that it will be bought in Germany (it won't be liable to confiscation, le sujet n'y prête pasd). If, then, your worthy papa is prepared to do business, I shall rely on you, if not, it can't be helped. In that case you will not, at any rate, refuse to advise me about other possible German publishers, since I am very much in the dark in regard to the German book trade as well.
Write and tell me about this if possible by return. Best regards
from your
F. Engels
98. Marx to Ferdinand Freiligrath. 5 September[43]
Dear Freiligrath, Address: Karl Blind, 18 Roberts Street, Peterson's Coffeehouse, Grosvenor Square; therein the letter to me under cover.
I can only write a word or two since I have had a kind of cholerine for the past 4-5 days and feel dreadfully listless.
My wife has written and asked me to acknowledge receipt of your letter enclosing 100 fr. Just imagine what blackguards the Paris police are; they have even been harassing my wife and it was only with difficulty that she succeeded in obtaining permission to remain in Paris until 15 September. We had rented our lodgings there up to that date.
I am now in a really difficult situation. My wife is in an advanced state of pregnancy,a she is obliged to leave Paris on the 15th and I don't know how I am to raise the money for her journey and for settling her in here.[289]
On the other hand there are excellent prospects of my being able to start a monthly reviewb here; but I am pressed for time and the first weeks constitute the real difficulty.
Lassalle seems to have been offended by my letter to you and another I wrote to him.c This was certainly very far from my intention, and I should already have written to him, if my present condition did not make letter-writing a real burden to me.
Once I am more or less on my feet again I shall write to you in greater detail about politics. I look forward to a few lines from you soon. Best regards to your wife,a Daniels, etc.
Your
K. Marx
Die Neue Zeit, Ergänzungsheft, No. 12, 12 April 1912, Stuttgart
99. Engels to George Julian Harney. 5 October[290]h
My dear Harney,
You will have got the few lines I sent you through Colonel Willich.[291] This is to inform you, and by you Marx, that I am this morning arrived here in Genova, and that, wind and weather favourable, I am going under sail for London to-morrow morning on board the English schooner Cornish Diamond, Capt-n Stevens. My journey will be of about 4 or 5 weeks so that by the middle of November I shall be in London.
I am very happy to have found so soon an opportunity of leaving this damned police atmosphere — indeed I never saw it so organised as here in Piedmont.
Ever truly thine
F. Engels
100. Marx to Louis Bauer. 30 November
IN LONDON
[DraftJ
London, 30 November [1849]
Sir,
In view of the inimical relations now obtaining between the two societies to' which we belong — in view of your direct attacks upon the refugee committee here,[292] at any rate upon my friends and colleagues in the same — we must break off social relations if we are not mutually to expose ourselves to equivocal interpretations. Yesterday evening I thought it unseemly, in the presence of my wife, to express my views on this collision.
While expressing my utmost obligation to you for your medical assistance, I would beg you to send me your account.
Yours truly
Dr K. Marx
101. Marx to Joseph Weydemeyer. 19 December[293]
Dear Weydemeyer,
An unconscionable time has elapsed since I last wrote to you. Civil vexations of every kind, all manner of business and, finally, the general difficulty I have in bringing myself to write a letter, will explain to you my long silence. I have at last, post tot discrimina rerum? succeeded in giving reality to my Revue? that is to say, I have a printer and a distributor in Hamburg.0 Otherwise we do everything at our own expense. The worst of it is that in Germany so much time is always lost before one can get to the point of publication. I have little dqubt that by the time 3, or maybe 2, monthly issues have appeared, a world conflagration will intervene and the opportunity of temporarily finishing with political economy will be gone.[294]
As you live in the heart of Germany and hence are more familiar with the details than we are, you might perhaps find time to describe, for our Revue, briefly and concisely in a few main features, the present condition of South Germany and everything connected with it.[295]
I would further request you to insert the following announcement in your paperd but not until you have seen the announcement in the Kölnische Zeitung for which the bookseller in Hamburg will be responsible. Perhaps you could send a copy to Westphalia. For you will see from the announcement that, besides our circulation through the book trade, we want to establish another by asking our party comrades to draw up subscription lists and send them to us here. For the time being we shall have to keep the price fairly high and the number of sheets low. Should our resources increase as a result of a wider circulation, this defect will be remedied.
What do you think of the row between Proudhon, Blanc and Pierre Leroux?[296]
Willich sends you his regards, and likewise Engels, red WolfF and Weerth.
Here in England the most important movement is probably taking place at this moment. On the one hand, protectionist agitation supported by the fanaticised rural population — the consequences of the free CORN TRADE are now beginning to be felt in the form I predicted years agof—on the other, the Free Traders who, as FINANCIAL AND PARLIAMENTARY REFORMERS,[284] are extending the wider political and economic logic of their system to home affairs and, as PEACE PARTY,[269] to foreign affairs; finally, the Chartists who, while acting in concert with the bourgeoisie against the aristocracy, have at the same time resumed with increased vigour their own party activity against the bourgeois.[297] The conflict between these parties will be tremendous and the outward form of agitation will become more tempestuous-ly revolutionary if, as I hope — and not without good reason — the Tories come to power in place of the Whigs. Another événement," as yet imperceptible on the Continent, is the mighty industrial, agricultural and commercial crisis now looming up. Were the Continent to postpone its revolution until after the onset of this crisis, England might from the start have to be an ally, albeit an unpopular one, of the revolutionary Continent. An earlier outbreak of revolution — unless directly motivated by Russian intervention — would in my view be a malheurh since at this particular time, with trade still en ascendant? the mass of the workers in France, Germany, etc., as well as the entire strata of tradesmen, etc., though perhaps revolutionary in words, are certainly not so en réalité.6
You know that my wife has made the world richer by one citizene? She sends her warm regards to you and your wife/ My best regards to the latter also.
Write soon.
Your
K. Marx
Apropos, can you find out Citizen Hentze's address for me? You will have seen friend Heinzen's inane bragging in the newspapers.8 This fellow, who was done for by the revolution in Germany — before that his things enjoyed a certain vogue parce que le petit bourgeois et le commis-voyageur s'amusèrent à lire imprimées en pleins caractères les bêtises et les rodomontades qu'ils débitaient eux-mêmes mystérieusement chez le marchand de vin entre le fromage et le biscuit?1—is endeavouring to rehabilitate himself by compromising the other refugees in Switzerland and England — those who have really worked — in the eyes of those countries' governments,[298] by kicking up a row, and earning himself a lucrative martyrdom by threatening shortly to gobble up a hundred THOUSAND OF MILLIONS OF MEN at déjeuner à la fourchette?
102. Engels to Jakob Lukas Schabelitz. 22 December
Dear Schabelitz,
I received your letter and, if I failed to answer it from Lausanne, it was for a variety of reasons, but more especially my great circumnavigation of the globe from Genoa to London, which kept me 5 weeks afloat. The reason I didn't let Bamberger have my manuscriptb was because I wanted to have it published either as a pamphlet of my own or, failing that, in the Revue which we already had in mind at the time. This Revue has now come into being and in January the first issue will appear in Germany — as you will have already seen from a somewhat premature announcement in the Berner Zeitung.0 We should be very pleased if you or your old mand would make yourselves more or less responsible for sales in Switzerland and open an account direct with us. The copies would reach you through our Hamburg commission agent,e
and you might perhaps be able to take over some kind of general agency for Switzerland, since we prefer in any case to work only with sound houses and I don't know the fellow who put his name to the announcement in Berne.' You might tell me some time whether the man's any good. Consider, then, how this might be arranged and let me know on what terms. At all events, these would have to provide for quarterly accounts and payments, at least as regards sums received from regular subscribers. We also require this of our Hamburg commission agent.[3]
Kindly have the enclosed announcement inserted in the National-Zeitungb and, should you from time to time require a fill-in, use this one for preference.
Besides the general introduction (by Marx), the first issue will contain a first article by me on the campaign for an imperial constitution, an article by little Wolffc on the last days of the Frankfurt and Stuttgart parliaments, a survey of events by Marx and myselfd and, if feasible, the first of a series of lectures on economics which Marx is giving at the Workers' Society here.[299]
Also miscellanea, perhaps something more by red Wolff.e The latter, Marx, Weerth and I, are now here and Lupus will, if at all possible, be joining us shortly.
AH in all, things are going quite well here. Struve and Heinzen are intriguing with all and sundry against the Workers' Society and ourselves, but without success. They, together with some wailers of moderate persuasion who have been thrown out of our society, form a select club at which Heinzen airs his grievances about the noxious doctrines of the communists.[300]
Write to me as soon as possible on the business question.
Your
F. Engels
Happy New Year in advance.
Be so kind as to send me forthwith a parcel containing Mieroslawski's 'Rapports sur la campagne en Bade', Daul's 'Tagebuch eines pp.', the Becker-Esselen screed/ and anything else of importance that has appeared on the Baden business, i.e. that contains facts and not hot air. You can either draw the amount on me, or charge it to the account of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung against future business transactions.
First published in: Marx and Engels, Printed according to the original Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow 1934 Published in English for the first time 1850
103
Endnotes
[248] Engels received news, probably on 11 or 12 January, that he could return to Germany without runrtmg the risk of being arrested. He immediately undertook all the formalities necessary to obtain an exit permit from Switzerland, and obtained it on 18 January 1849 (see present edition, Vol. 8, p. 515). Shortly after this Engels returned to Cologne and resumed work as editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung.—185
[249] By 'grace and favour (oktroyierte) Prussia' Engels means Prussia after the counter-revolutionary coup d'état which resulted in the dissolution of the National Assembly on 5 December 1848 and the proclamation of the so-called imposed constitution. The Constitution introduced a two-chamber parliament: the First Chamber consisting of privileged aristocrats and the Second Chamber elected in two stages. Under the law of 6 December a considerable proportion of the workers had no right to vote. The King was invested with wide powers, including the right to convene and dissolve both Chambers, to repeal their decisions, to appoint Cabinets and to revise the Constitution itself.—186
[250] The March Association, thus named after the March 1848 revolution, was founded in Frankfurt am Main at the end of November 1848 by the Left-wing deputies of the Frankfurt National Assembly and had branches in various towns of Germany. Fröbel, Simon, Rüge, Vogt and other petty-bourgeois democratic leaders of March associations confined themselves to revolutionary phrase-mongering and showed indecision and inconsistency in the struggle against the counter-revolutionaries, for which Marx and Engels sharply criticised them.—186
[251] Marx's letter to Eduard von Müller-Tellering has not been found. At the beginning of January von Müller-Tellering was arrested and banished from Vienna (on his reports from that city published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung see Note 243). Later Tellering sent reports from Silesia and Saxony on the situation in Vienna based on the letters of his Vienna acquaintances, and also reports from Leipzig and Dresden (these were marked A).—189
[252] Threatened with arrest after the state of siege was declared in Cologne on 26 September 1848 (see Note 233), Dronke emigrated to Paris but persisted in the desire to return to Germany. He was kept in Paris only by categorical directions from Marx, who had grounds to fear he would be arrested. It was not till March 1849 that Dronke returned to Cologne and began to work on the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Neither Marx's previous letter to Dronke nor his other letters mentioned below have been found.—190
[253] An anonymous item published in the supplement to No. 233 of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung for 28 February 1849 accused von Uttenhoven, a Captain in the 8th Company of the 16th Infantry Regiment, known for his reactionary views, of misuse of and speculation in army fuel.—193
[254] This refers to two lawsuits held in Cologne on 7 and 8 February 1849. The first was instituted by the Cologne Public Prosecutor's office against the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, its editors Marx and Engels and the responsible editor Hermann Korff for publishing the article 'Arrests' (see notes 236 and 244). 21-1543 The pretext for the second was the charge against Marx, Karl Schapper and the lawyer Schneider II of incitement to mutiny in connection with the call of the Rhenish District Committee of Democrats (see Note 239) of 18 November 1848 for refusal to pay taxes. In both cases the juries acquitted the defendants.—194
[255] From mid-April to 9 May 1849 Marx made a trip to North-Western Germany. He visited Bremen, Hamburg and the neighbouring towns, including Harburg. On his way back to Cologne Marx stopped at Bielefeld and Hamm. The purpose of the trip was to strengthen contacts between the Communist League members and workers' associations in preparation for the creation of a mass proletarian party, to discuss problems of revolutionary tactics with members of the working-class and democratic movements, and to raise funds for the continued publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. In Marx's absence Engels directed the newspaper. Engels' letter to Marx mentioned here has not been found.—195
[256] Karl Bruhn participated in the Baden republican uprising in April 1849 and played an active role in the popular uprising in Frankfurt am Main (September 1848) in protest against the ratification by the Frankfurt National Assembly of the capitulatory truce of Malmö. Concluded between Prussia and Denmark, this truce preserved Danish rule in Schleswig-Holstein. Since the end of 1848 Bruhn had been working in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein on the instruction of the Communist League and sending reports to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung from there.— 196
[257] An allusion to the cruel suppression of the popular uprising in Vienna in October 1848 by the Austrian counter-revolution. Marx made Andreas Stiftt's acquaintance in August 1848 during his visit to Vienna (see Note 235), where he made a speech at a meeting of the Democratic Society and delivered a report and a lecture at the Vienna Workers' Society. Stiftt was member of both these organisations and a contributor to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung.—197
[258] After the Neue Rheinische Zeitung had ceased publication on 19 May 1849, Marx and Engels left for Frankfurt am Main where they tried to persuade the Left-wing deputies to the all-German National Assembly to take decisive action in support of the uprising in South-Western Germany at the time in defence of the Imperial Constitution drawn up by the Assembly but rejected by the German sovereigns. Having failed to achieve their aim they left for Karlsruhe and then Kaiserslautern — capitals of insurgent Baden and the Palatinate. Convinced that the petty-bourgeois democratic leaders of the Provisional Governments in Baden and the Palatinate lacked revolutionary energy and were helpless, Marx and Engels left at the end of May for Bingen, where they parted. Early in June Marx went to Paris, and Engels returned to Kaiserslautern to join the Baden-Palatinate revolutionary army.—198
[259] Marx arrived in Paris about 2 June 1849 with the mandate from the Central Committee of German Democrats (see Note 238) issued to him in Kaiserslautern by d'Ester, a member of the Committee and of the Palatinate Provisional Government. Marx decided to go to France when he realised that the petty-bourgeois democrats of Baden and the Palatinate were unable to make the struggle all-German in scale, to launch a resolute offensive and bring the Frankfurt Assembly openly to join the uprising. New great events were expected in France, where the conflict between the democratic party — the so-called Montagne (Mountain)—and the ruling circles was coming to a head. In Paris Marx hoped to strengthen international contacts between the German and French democrats, for this would have been of major importance in the event of a new revolutionary upsurge in both countries.—198
[8] L. Feuerbach's Das Wesen des Glaubens im Sinne Luther's was published in instalments in Vorwärts! from the middle of August to the end of October 1844.—8 lJ This letter without an address on the back of it was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, On Britain, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953 and in full in Letters of the Young Engels, 1838-1845, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976.—9
[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
[261] Engels' 'article in French' on the national liberation struggle in Hungary was probably never written.—200
[262] The last issue, No. 301, of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung for 19 May 1849, printed in red, was published in a greater number of copies than usual. Later it was reprinted several times and used by the Communist League members, who remained in Germany, for propaganda purposes.—201, 237
[263] Jenny Marx spent June 1849 in her native town of Trier. On July 7 she joined her husband in Paris accompanied by her three children and Hélène Demuth (the Marxes' housekeeper).—201, 207, 546,555
[264] At the beginning of June 1849, when in Kaiserslautern, Engels entered into close contact with d'Ester, the most energetic member of the Palatinate Provisional Government, but refused, however, to accept any civil or military post. On 13 June Engels left for Offenburg, where he joined Willich's volunteer corps of 800 men, mostly workers, which was part of the Baden-Palatinate insurgent army. Engels fought the whole campaign as Willich's adjutant. Willich's corps covered the retreat of this army under pressure from numerically superior counter-revolutionary forces and was among the last units to cross the Swiss border on 12 July 1849. On 24 July Engels arrived at Vevey (Canton Vaud) where he stayed for a month. He described the operations of the insurgent army in The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 147-239). Engels' letter to Marx from Kaiserslautern has not survived. An extract from Engels' letter to Jenny Marx was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, 1934, and International Publishers, New York, 1935.—202, 370
[13] Rationalists-representatives of a Protestant trend which tried to combine theology with philosophy and to prove that 'divine truths' can be explained by reason.
[266] The subject is Lassalle's intention to raise funds to help Marx.
[267] These were the two factions in the so-called Party of Order — a conservative bloc of the monarchist groups formed in 1848 which had the majority in the Legislative Assembly of the French Republic (opened at the end of May 1849).
[271] Marx mentions the Holy Alliance in connection with the attempts of feudal-monarchical circles in Prussia, Austria and tsarist Russia to form a coalition similar to the counter-revolutionary Holy Alliance founded in 1815 by the European monarchs, and which ceased to exist after the 1830 revolution in France.
[26] Engels' reference is to the Berlin confectioner who owned a shop in the Gendarmenmarkt where 'The Free' used to have their meetings.—19
[273] Marx's suggestion was approved and subsequently put into practice by Engels. However, Engels started writing his work, which was later published under the heading, The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution (see present edition, Vol. 10), not earlier than mid-August 1849 after he had moved to Lausanne (see this volume, p. 215) and did not finish it until February 1850, after his arrival in London from Switzerland.—207
[274] T h e negotiations mentioned here ended in December 1849 in the foundation of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue. The periodical was planned as a continuation of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung published by Marx and Engels during the 1848-49 revolution. Altogether six issues appeared from March to November 1850, one of them a double one (5-6). The journal was edited in London and published in Hamburg. Most of the articles and literary and international reviews were written by Marx and Engels, who got their followers Wilhelm Wolff, Joseph Weydemeyer and Johann Georg Eccarius to contribute to the Revue. The works published in the journal assessed the results of the 1848-49 revolution and developed further the theory and tactics of the revolutionary proletarian party. The publication of the Revue was discontinued due to police persecution in Germany and lack of funds.—207
[275] The date of writing of this letter was established on the basis of Marx's mentioning in it the receipt of Engels' letter to Jenny Marx of 25 July 1849. In English this letter was first published abridged in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953.—208
[276] The reference is to a contract signed between Leske and Marx on 1 February 1845 for the publication of Marx's work Kritik der Politik und Nationalökonomie (see Note 59).—208
[277] An allusion to the setback of the Montagne on 13 June 1849 (see Note 260). In the battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) Napoleon's army was defeated by the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian forces commanded by Wellington and Blücher.—209, 332
[278] There is no information about this article except a mention in Marx's next letter to Weydemeyer.—209
[279] This seems to refer to Rühl's offer to participate in publishing a series of pamphlets (see this volume, p. 208) planned by Marx. The offer was conveyed through Weydemeyer on the basis of whose letter to Marx of 28 August 1849 the approximate date of this letter was established.—209
[280] It is not known whether Marx wrote to Naut or not.—210
[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
[281] This letter written in the first half of August 1849 has not been found.—210
[282] Marx's protest to the French Ministry of the Interior against the decision to expel him from Paris has not been found. When he wrote this letter Marx did not know that his protest had been rejected. But he soon received a notification by the commissioner of police, dated 16 August 1849, stating that Minister of the Interior Dufaure had upheld the decision on Marx's expulsion (see present edition, Vol. 9, p. 527).—211
[283] The reference is to the home situation in France in the summer of 1849 which was characterised by intensified repressions against democrats and socialists and by discord and friction within the ruling circles themselves — between the various factions in the Assembly majority (see Note 267), between these factions and the Government, and between the Assembly and Louis Bonaparte's entourage. The addition of 45 centimes to every franc of all direct taxes was introduced by the Provisional Government on 16 March 1848. It aroused particular discontent among the peasants, who formed the bulk of tax-payers. In mid-August 1849 under pressure from the monarchist deputies, a two months' adjournment of the French Legislative Assembly was decreed. The Assembly met again in October 1849.—211
[285] On 23 August 1849 Marx and his wife were -ordered by the police to leave Paris within 24 hours. Jenny Marx got permission to stay in Paris till 15 September with her children, but Marx was obliged to make leave in haste. According to the Boulogne stamp in the passport issued to him by the French police on 24 August, he was in this port on his way to London on 26 August (see present edition, Vol. 9, pp. 529-30). Presumably he arrived on the same day in London, where he was based for the rest of his life. Meanwhile Engels had left Vevey for Lausanne.—212
[286] Xhe Elberfeld uprising of workers and petty bourgeoisie in defence of the Imperial Constitution, which flared up on 8 May 1849, served as a signal for armed struggle in a number of towns in the Rhine Province (Düsseldorf, Iserlohn, Solingen and others). Engels arrived in Elberfeld on 11 May and took an active part in the uprising, in particular directing the erection of street barricades. However, his efforts to secure the disarmament of the bourgeois civic militia, the imposition of a war tax on the bourgeoisie, the formation of the nucleus of a Rhenish revolutionary army out of armed workers' detachments and to unite localised uprisings, met with opposition from the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois leaders of the movement. Under pressure from bourgeois circles Engels was expelled from the town on 15 May. The uprising in Elberfeld, as in other towns of the Rhine Province, was a failure. On Engels' participation in the revolutionary struggle in Baden and the Palatinate see notes 264 and 265.—213,551
[287] In English this letter was first published abridged and datelined '25 August 1849' in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953. The date of writing has been corrected after a more exact deciphering of the original.—213 5 October 1849 he arrived in Genoa, and on the following day left for England on a British schooner via Gibraltar and the Bay of Biscay. The voyage lasted nearly five weeks. About 12 November, Engels arrived in London as was reported in the item: 'London, 14. Nov.' by the Westdeutsche Zeitung, No. 154, 20 November 1849. The English original of the present letter was first printed in the Harney Papers, Assen, 1969.—217
[288] At the end of May 1849, returning from insurgent Baden and the Palatinate (see Note 258), Marx and Engels were arrested on the way to Bingen by Hesse soldiers, who suspected them of being insurgents, and were deported to Darmstadt and thence to Frankfurt am Main. There they were released and resumed their journey to Bingen. Early in June 1849 Engels was arrested in Kirchheimbolanden by the Palatinate Provisional Government on a charge of anti-government propaganda. The day after his arrest he was released on the insistence of d'Ester, a member of the Provisional Government.—213
[289] Jenny Marx and her three children arrived in London about 17 September 1849.—216
[290] Accepting Marx's suggestion to move to London Engels had to go via Piedmont, as he risked being arrested in France and more so in Germany. On
[291] Societies referred to are the German Workers' Educational So
[292] Societies referred to are the German Workers' Educational Society (London) (see Note 52) and the Democratic Association formed by a group of petty-bourgeois democrats headed by Kallenberg in London early in November 1849, and joined later by some former members of the Educational Society, Ludwig Bauer among them. Engels also wrote to Jakob Schabelitz on the collision between the two organisations (see this volume, p. 222). The German Political Refugee Committee was set up on Marx's initiative under the auspices of the German Workers' Educational Society in London on 18 September 1849. Besides Marx and other members of the Communist League it included some petty-bourgeois democrats. At the meeting of the Educational Society on 18 November the Committee was transformed into the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee, the aim being to dissociate the proletarian section of the London refugees from the petty-bourgeois elements. The new Committee included only members of the Communist League. Marx was elected its chairman. Engels, who after his arrival in London was included in the Central Authority of the Communist League restored by Marx, also became a member of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee. Besides rendering material aid to the proletarian refugees, the Committee played an important role in reorganising the Communist League and reestablishing ties between its members. In September 1850, Marx, Engels and their adherents withdrew from the Committee because the followers of the Willich-Schapper sectarian group were in the majority in the Educational Society to which the Refugee Committee was accountable. Early in November 1849, the petty-bourgeois democrats of the Democratic Association formed their own Refugee Committee headed by Ludwig Bauer, Friedrich Bobzin and Gustav Struve.—218, 442, 445 391 This letter has not been found.—217 18 January 1850 Proudhon polemicised bitterly with Louis Blanc, particularly against the latter's idea of using the existing State for solving the social problem, and censured his activity as a member of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (see Note 213) calling him a pseudo-socialist and pseudo-democrat. Proudhon criticised from anarcho-reformist positions Louis Blanc's 'state socialism' and other French socialists' ideas close to Blanc's.—219
[293] In English this letter was first published abridged in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953.—
[294] On Marx's plans to write and publish a work on political economy see notes 5 and 59.—219
[295] Marx's intention to enlist Joseph Weydemeyer as a regular contributor to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue was never realised. About mid-January Weydemeyer wrote his first article 'From South Germany' but it was not published in the first issue of the Revue owing to lack of space, and later lost its topical interest.—219, 225, 228, 549
[296] In a series of articles published in the Voix du Peuple from 10 November 1849 to
[297] After their defeat in 1848 (dispersal of their demonstration of 10 April, etc.) the Chartists resumed agitation in the autumn of 1849: mass meetings in factory districts were held in support of the imprisoned Chartists and an amnesty of political prisoners was demanded. At the beginning of December 1849 a new wave of meetings swept over London and the towns of Northern England on the occasion of the nomination of delegates to the Chartist Convention which was to reorganise the movement.—220
[298] Karl Heinzen's statements in his pamphlet, Lehren der Revolution, that during the future revolution millions of reactionaries would be beaten up, were used by some conservative European press organs for launching a campaign against political refugees. As The Times of 23 November 1849 tried to lay the responsibility for these 'hellish doctrines' on all German socialists and described Heinzen as one of their leading figures, Marx and Engels deemed it necessary to dissociate themselves from his utterances. With this aim in view Engels published a note 'The German Social Democrats and The Times' in the Chartist Northern Star, 1 December 1849 (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 3-4).— 220
[299] The first issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue published on 8 March 1850 carried the first part of Marx's The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 45-70), two chapters of Engels' The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 147-85) and Karl Blind's article 'Osterreichische und preussische Parteien in Baden'. The general introduction mentioned in this letter was not published. The review of events written by Marx and Engels appeared only in the second issue of the journal (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 257-70). Wilhelm Wolff's article was only published in the fourth issue under the heading 'Nachträgliches "aus dem Reich'": it discussed the final stage in the work of the Frankfurt National Assembly (see Note 231) after the majority of the liberal deputies had withdrawn and it had been transferred to Stuttgart (end of May 1849). The lectures on political economy which Marx delivered in the London German Workers' Educational Society (see Note 52) at the end of 1849 and in 1850 were not published in the Revue.— 222
[300] The club referred to by Engels is the emigrant Democratic Association (see Note 292). In 1848-49 the republican democrats in Germany called the moderate bourgeois constitutionalists 'wailers' (Heuler). In this particular instance the reference is to petty-bourgeois democrats who left the London German Workers' Educational Society and took part in setting up the Democratic Association.—222, 384
[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,
[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
[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
[260] Montagnards—during the French revolution of 1848-49 representatives in the Constituent and subsequently Legislative Assembly of a bloc of democrats and petty-bourgeois socialists grouped around the newspaper La Réforme. They called themselves the Montagne by analogy with the Montagne in the Convention of 1792-94. On 13 June 1849 the Montagne staged a peaceful demonstration to protest against the sending of French troops to suppress the Roman Republic. The demonstration was dispersed by the army and the bourgeois detachments of the National Guards and there followed a counter-revolutionary offensive, persecution of democrats and proletarian activists, including emigrants. Many Montagnards were arrested or emigrated.—199, 211, 283, 309, 360, 409,547
[265] On 17 June 1849 Engels fought in the battle of Rinnthal. He commanded a flank group of Willich's corps which covered the retreat of the Palatinate army and fought the advance guard of an enemy division for many hours. On 21 June Willich's men, with the active participation of Engels, checked the advance of a Prussian battalion at Neuchart near Karlsdorf and forced it to retreat. On 28 June 1849 Engels took part in. an engagement at Michelbach in which the advance guard of the division to which Willich's corps belonged after the reorganisation of the insurgent army defeated a Prussian force. 21* On 29 and 30 June at Rastatt the Baden-Palatinate insurgent army fought and lost its last battle against the Prussian army. At certain critical moments of the battle Engels assumed command of the vanguard.—203, 215 The subject is Lassalle's intention to raise funds to help Marx. The letters to Lassalle mentioned by Marx have not been found. An extract from this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, On Britain, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954.—204 These were the two factions in the so-called Party of Order — a conservative bloc of the monarchist groups formed in 1848 which had the majority in the Legislative Assembly of the French Republic (opened at the end of May 1849). The Philippists or Orleanists were supporters of the House of Orleans (a lateral branch of the Bourbon dynasty) overthrown by the February revolution of 1848; they represented the interests of the financial aristocracy and the big industrial bourgeoisie; their candidate for the throne was Louis Philippe Albert, Count of Paris and grandson of Louis Philippe. The Legitimists, supporters of the main branch of the Bourbon dynasty overthrown in 1830, upheld the interests of the big hereditary landowners and the claim to the French throne of the Count of Chambord, King Charles X's grandson, who called himself Henry V. Some of the Legitimists remained outside the bloc of monarchist groups.— 205, 360,484 According to a decision of the Constituent Assembly the wine tax was to be abolished before 1 January 1850. But, as Marx predicted, it was retained by a decision of the Legislative Assembly on 20 December 1849 (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 117-19).—205, 211 The Peace Society—a pacifist organisation founded by the Quakers in 1816 in London. It was actively supported by the Free Traders who assumed that in peace time free trade would enable Britain to make better use of its industrial superiority and win economic and political supremacy.—205, 211, 219 The Corn Laws (first introduced in the fifteenth century) imposed high import duties on agricultural produce in the interests of landowners in order to maintain high prices for these products on the home market. In 1838 the Manchester factory owners Cobden and Bright founded the Anti-Corn Law League, which demanded the lifting of the corn tariffs and urged unlimited freedom of trade for the purpose of weakening the economic and political power of the landed aristocracy and reducing worker's wages. The struggle between the industrial bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy over the Corn Laws ended in 1846 with their repeal. The Navigation Acts were passed by the British Parliament in 1651 and subsequent years to protect British shipping companies against foreign rivals. They were repealed in 1849.—205, 211, 261, 376,537 Marx mentions the Holy Alliance in connection with the attempts of feudal-monarchical circles in Prussia, Austria and tsarist Russia to form a coalition similar to the counter-revolutionary Holy Alliance founded in 1815 by the European monarchs, and which ceased to exist after the 1830 revolution in France.—205, 288, 329, 357 On 19 July 1849 in an atmosphere of repression against democrats and socialists following the events of 13 June in Paris (see Note 260), the French
[268] According to a decision of the Constituent Assembly the wine tax was to be abolished before 1 January 1850. But, as Marx predicted, it was retained by a decision of the Legislative Assembly on 20 December 1849 (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 117-19).
[269] The Peace Society — a pacifist organisation founded by the Quakers in 1816 in London. It was actively supported by the Free Traders who assumed that in peace time free trade would enable Britain to make better use of its industrial superiority and win economic and political supremacy.
[270] The Corn Laws (first introduced in the fifteenth century) imposed high import duties on agricultural produce in the interests of landowners in order to maintain high prices for these products on the home market. In 1838 the Manchester factory owners Cobden and Bright founded the Anti-Corn Law League.
[272] On 19 July 1849 in an atmosphere of repression against democrats and socialists following the events of 13 June in Paris (see Note 260), the French authorities notified Marx that an order had been issued for his expulsion from Paris to Morbihan, a swampy and unhealthy département in Brittany. Marx protested and the expulsion was delayed, but on 23 August he again was ordered by the police to leave Paris within 24 hours. Marx compares the département of Morbihan with the Pontine marshes in Italy, mentioned by Strabo in his Geography, Book 5, Ch. 3, § 5, and other ancient authors, which are a breeding-ground of malaria and other diseases.—
[284] At the meeting on 13 August 1849 in the London Drury Lane Theatre of the National Association for Parliamentary and Financial Reform (founded by the bourgeois radicals in 1849 with the aim of achieving a democratic electoral system and changes in the tax system) O'Connor advocated a union of the middle and working classes. His speech was supported by the Free Trader Thomas Thompson.—211, 219, 272, 279, 549
[43] This letter was first published in English in full in The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliff, New Jersey, 1979.—30, 207,