1864
Dear Moor,
The many CHRISTMAS drinking-sprees and consequent GENERAL UNFITNESS FOR BUSINESS have rendered me utterly incapable of replying any sooner. However, the affair is now happily over.
I am sending your wife the amount in question/ For the rest, I'm delighted to hear that your second carbuncle has been operated on, and that you are thus over this latter crisis. You'll have got damned thin as a result of this tedious business.
The Schleswig-Holstein affair has come off the rails again good and proper. If, as I believe, there's war in the spring, we shall have Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy against us and, possibly, England. In Hungary and Poland Plonplonism,[524] to which Kossuth had already pointed the way, is in full swing.[567] I see only two ways out here: 1. either revolution in Berlin as soon as the troops have left and, in Vienna, a corresponding movement with concessions of an adequate kind to Hungary and, perhaps, also to Poland. That's what would be most favourable, and there would be nothing to fear in such a case. But it is also what is most improbable, in view of the confusion that prevails. Or, alternative-ly, 2. a restoration of the Holy Alliance[511] for which, as always, the partition of Poland would provide the cement (Russia has a greater interest in Poland than in Denmark and also the prospect, come the armistice, of having Austria and Prussia under her thumb, i.e. being able to impose her own conditions).
Then the Russians would take over from the Prussians in Berlin and play the policeman, whereat we would be done for, and Bonaparte cock of the walk.
The mock war in Schleswig under Wrangel can't last very long.[568] In the first place, the Danish fortifications will make even tlie initial encounters too bloody and, in the second, Boustrapa [167]
is too much in need of a popular war not to seize this opportunity. What more could he ask than the restoration of the Holy Alliance and a war for both Poland and the Rhine with, for good measure, England and Italy and all the small states of Europe on his side?
Apropos. Our worthy Faucher, who shows himself a rabid Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg man in the Chamber," is, at the same time, sending The Manchester Guardian anti-German articles in which he arse-licks to the English bastards of The Times. Shouldn't one do something to unmask this louse?
If the curs in the Prussian Chamber were now to take their courage in both hands, they could straighten things out to their own satisfaction within the space of 6 weeks. Handsome William's reply shows what a fix the government is in.[569] No one will fork out, not even the worthy von der Heydt, and they know they won't get any money par force!'
Lupus has just come to pick me up and sends you his kindest regards.
Here's to a good recovery and a Happy New Year.
Your
F. E.
1913
304. Marx to Engels. 20 January
304
MARX TO ENGELS""
IN MANCHESTER
Zalt-Bommel, 20 January 1864
Dear Frederick,
As you see, I am still here and 'let me tell you something else, Sir', I am in fact once more unable TO MOVE ABOUT This is a disease of truly Christian perfidiousness. When I got your letter, I was congratulating myself on the way the old wounds had healed, but that self-same evening a large furuncle erupted just below my neck on the left-hand side of my chest and, antipodally to it, one on my back. Although irksome, it did not, at least, prevent me from walking and, in fact, I accompanied my uncle and cousin " on a stroll across the Rhine (Waal). But a few days later, yet another carbuncle appeared on my right leg, close beneath the spot of which Goethe says: 'And if the noble fellow has no bum, on what does he propose to sit?'b Now this is the most painful and embarrassing boil I have had so far, and I trust will be the last of a long series. In the meantime, I can neither walk, stand, nor sit, and find even lying down damned difficult. So you see, mon cher, how nature in her wisdom is persecuting me. Would she not be-better advised to inflict these trials of patience upon a good Christian — someone of the same stamp as Silvio Pellico? Besides the carbuncle beneath my buttock, I should inform you that another furuncle has erupted on my back, while the one on my chest has only just begun to heal so that, like a veritable Lazarus (alias Lassalle), I am assailed on all sides at once.
Apropos Lazarus, I am reminded of Renan's Life of Jesus which is, in many respects, simply a novel full of pantheistic-mystical extravaganzas. However, the book also has some advantages over its German predecessors and, since it isn't long, you ought to read it. It is, of course, a derivative of the German stuff. Most remarkable. Here in Holland the German critico-theological tendency is so much à l'ordre du jour[1] that the clergy openly profess it from the pulpit.
As regards the Schleswig-Holstein affair, I hope that it will lead to clashes in Germany itself.[5]'c How well Russia knows her
305. Marx to Lion Philips. 20 February
Pappenheimers,3 both Austrian and Prussian, is evident from the COOL IMPUDENCE with which she is, at this juncture, allowing the Petersburg Journal to print the Warsaw Protocol.b
The German petty princes are taking the fiction of the Schleswig-Holstein movement very seriously. They genuinely believe that Germania cannot have enough of them and is therefore intent on enthroning a 35th.c
I am writing you no more than a short letter, and that only with great effort, since it's agony for me to sit. But I shall expect an early reply from you; it CHEERS ME UP to see your handwriting.
Don't forget to enclose your photograph. I have promised my cousin as much, and how is she to believe in our Orestes-Pylades relationship, if I can't even commovered you to send a photograph? Address as before CARE OF Mr L. Philips.
Salut to yourself and Lupus.
Your
K. M.
305
MARX TO LION PHILIPS[239]
IN ZALT-BOMMEL
London, 20 February [1864]e
Dear Uncle,
I shall begin at the end. I arrived here yesterday ABOUT NOON in a frozen condition, FOR IT WAS DEVILISH COLD. My reception was all the warmer, and thus I enjoyed the delights inseparable from a complete contrast. En passant' yesterday and today were the coldest days there have been in London. So it seems I am fated to bring winter not only to Bommel but also to London. * I wish the Prussians in Schleswig-Holstein the full enjoyment of this 'seasonable weather'.5n If their patriotism or rather* their 'loyal and royal enthusiasm"[1] *is not cooled down by that, then, Sir, we must give it up! *
Our little childh *was quite enchanted by the really beautiful Dolly, Madame Augustc had chosen for her. I enclose some lines on the part of the child. She did not leave off bothering myself till I had promised her to enclose also for you a letter which she pretends to be written in Chinese characters and which an English friend has sent her.*
[In Amsterd]amd I found the whole family well and cheerful. [Augustf] was very busy and so I said [nothing] at all to him about financial matters. At the insurance office I was given thousand guilder notes, most of which I changed in Rotterdam, with Jacques'' help, into bills and ABOUT a quarter into BANKNOTES.
Nor, during the two days I was in Rotterdam, did Jacques have overmuch spare time. One day, he was pleading in a small town nearby and, the other, he had to attend a court of appraisal. On the whole, I should say that, since becoming engaged, he has had much more of AN EYE TO BUSINESS' than previously. I don't doubt that in a few years' time he will have a sound practice, the more so since he likes legal work. He himself told me that he wins nearly all his doubtful cases, and, if he goes to the trouble of telling one something like that, he can be taken at his word. He and I laughed a great deal about a man whom he describes as 'the client' par excellence. This man, he told me, was still young and, over the next 30 years OR MORE, might litigate away a lot more of his assets!
Incidentally, August also has a quite peculiar faith in the infallibility of the courts. He opines, for example, that the English lose nothing by the high cost of their legal procedure. People who didn't engage in litigation had just as much chance of obtaining justice as those who did. * In point of fact, it seemed his opinion that dear law is as good as cheap law, and perhaps better; and he is a fellow who knows something about such things.*
August gave me the 3 parts of the Aardrijkskunde? and, on top of that, Jacques provided me with a work on political economy (Dutch) by Vissering,h a professor at Leyden, and a copy of Camera obscura? So I'm well stocked up with Dutch literature. Nothing in Frisian was to be had in Amsterdam, although in one bookshop alone there were works in 88 modern languages. The Negro languages seemed to have greater appeal to the Amster-damers than Frisian, * but man always contrives to neglect the things that are nearest to him *.
Sorje Oppenheim^ which was already creating a great sensation in Amsterdam, has been performed here by my daughters to piano accompaniment * and they hope to perform it one day before their uncle*.
A great bundle of newspapers, etc., from various latitudes has accumulated for me here, *but I am firmly resolved to know nothing of politics until Monday next.
Now, my dear uncle, I bid you farewell. Despite carbuncles and furuncles, I consider the two months I have lived in your house, as one of the happiest episodes of my life, and I shall always feel thankful for the kindness you have shown me.
You will, of course, tell Rothhäuschenc that I send him my compliments and that I regret having been forced giving battle to him.
My best compliments to the whole family, especially Jettchen,d Dr Anrooij, and Fritz.e Mrs Marx and the girls also send their compliments. Please to give the enclosed lines to Netchen.f
Yours truly,
Charles M.*
307. Marx to Engels. 11 March
306. Marx to Engels. 25 February
DEAR Frederick,
Just a few lines for the present to let you know of my return.[561]
As soon as the weather permits, I shall come up to Manchester for 2 days so as to see you in person again and, at the same time, give you an account of my AFFAIRS.
I have completely recovered and only one or two spots (specially on the upper part of my leg), which are in the final stages of healing up, continue to trouble me A LITTLE.. I haven't grown thin, but stout, despite my illness. True, I have given up smoking completely.
Pieper's sudden appearance on our doorstep was a real surprise. He's here to settle in his sister as a GOVERNESS. He spent 4 yrs as a schoolmaster in Bremen. Last year 'he ate the bread of the National Association','[24] and even went to Italy at Augustenburg's(1)
expense. He's the same bore and lout as he always was.
With kind regards to you and Lupus.
Your
K. M.
307
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] Friday, [11 March] 1864
DEAR Frederick,
Tomorrow I shall leave from Euston Station at 10 and arrive AT
MANCHESTER ABOUT [5] p . m .
308. Marx to Lion Philips. 29 March
It WOULD BE FOOLISH to go on waiting for good weather. What has also prevented me from coming DURING THE TWO LAST
WEEKS — SOME NEW AND UNEXPECTED FURUNCLES BREAKING THROUGH DIFFERENT PARTS
OF THE BODY.
YOURS
Moor
308
MARX TO LION PHILIPS[574]
IN AACHEN
London, [29 March 1864]
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill, N.W.
Dear Uncle,
I presume all of you are already or still in Aachen, and am therefore sending this letter there. Had you decided to wait for the fine weather, you'd have had to stay at Bommel until now. Here, at any rate, March has been QUITE ABOMINABLE, apart from one or two fine days — cold, wet, and changing from one moment to the next. This may be one reason why I haven't so far rid myself of those confounded brutes, my furuncles. I curse them, but under my breath.
LITTLE Eleanor has had a rather bad cough for the past two days which is what is preventing her from writing to you. However, she asks me to send you many salutations and, *in regard to the Danish Question, begs me to tell you, that 'she don't care for such stuff, and that 'she considers one of the parties to the quarrel as bad as the other, and perhaps worse'*.
The difficulty about understanding Prussia's policy is due solely to people's delusion in crediting it with serious and far-sighted aims and projects. The Mormon Bible,[575] for instance, is similarly most difficult to understand, precisely because there isn't an iota of sense in it. What Prussia was primarily aiming at was to make the army popular, an aim which the Schleswig-Holstein campaigns 29 1864
were already having to subserve in 1848.57fi Secondly, she was intent on closing the territory against German volunteer forces, democrats and the small states. Finally, Prussia and Austria, by exerting PRESSURE FROM WITHOUT, were to enable the Danish king,a who is hand in glove with them, to compel the Danes to make certain concessions at home and abroad. Austria could not, of course, leave Prussia to play this role on her own, and, at the same time, seized on the opportunity to effect a closer alliance with her against OTHER PÉRIPÉTIES.
The conference meets in London on 12th April.[577] T h e very most it will do is resolve that Schleswig and Holstein be bound to Denmark in a personal union—maybe less, certainly not more. How little in earnest the whole affair is, despite powder, shot and blood-letting, will be apparent to you if only from the fact that, u p till this moment, neither Prussia nor Austria has declared war on Denmark, nor Denmark on Prussia and Austria. There is no better way of throwing dust in people's eyes than to set armies marching, horses stamping, and cannon thundering.
DESPITE ALL THAT, SERIOUS CONFLICTS may BE IMMINENT. Once again, Bonaparte finds himself virtually compelled to set his troupiers u p in business as 'freedom' exporters because of the great DISAFFECTION which is not only prevalent in Paris, but provokingly rearing its head in the elections/™ And this time, the way has been paved for him by those dogs .of Prussians.
Garibaldi's trip to England and the great ovations he will receive FROM ALL SIDES h e r e " [9] are, OR at least are meant to be, merely the prelude TO A NEW RISING AGAINST AUSTRIA As an ally of the Prussians in Holstein and Schleswig and an ally of the Russians by virtue of the state of siege in Galicia,[580] Austria has made things very easy for her enemies. What with the present conditions in Poland, Hungary, and Italy, the popular sentiment in Germany, and the total change in England's position, a new Holy Alliance [5]" would enable even Napoleon le Petith to play the great one. At this, moment, the best thing would be for peace to continue, for any kind of war would delay the outbreak of revolution in France.
May God damn ME IF THERE BE ANYTHING MORE STUPID THAN THIS POLITICAL CHESSBOARD!
T h e r e were two other things I had actually meant to write to you about — Roman division and darkness in outer space. But as the light is failing, my paper is running out and it's almost time
•' Christian IX - b the Little, i.e. Louis Bonaparte. The nickname derives from Vktor Hugo's pamphlet Napoléon le Petit.
309. Marx to Lion Philips. 14 April
for the last post, I must conclude for the time being by sending my kindest regards to the whole family. Ditto to Karla and his wife, not forgetting Jean.b
Your affectionate nephew,
K. Marx
309
MARX TO LION PHILIPS[239]
IN ZALT-BOMMEL
London, 14 April 1864 1 Modena Villas, Haverstock Hill, N.W.
Dear Uncle,
I hope that the cough has gone the way of all flesh. As for myself, there hasn't been a sign of a FURUNCLE for a few days, and my doctor[1] thinks that I am now rid of the things for good. And high time, too. The sun seems to be breaking through at last. But there's still a nasty wind blowing from the East. Eleanor's cough has gone. However, her sister Jenny has a very persistent COUCH, [which]d will disappear [only] with a change of wind.
Conradi had already written to me before I got your letter, and I had replied, saying he could send the money here direct.c
At the Museum' I have been taking a look at Boethius's De arithmetica (he wrote at the time of the Völkerwanderung) on Roman division (he didn't, of course, know any other sort). From this and a number of other works with which I have compared it, I see that moderately simple calculations, such as household and commercial accounts, were never done with [figures] but with pebbles and similar tokens on an abacus. On this abacus several
" Karl Philips - b Jean Philips - ' Allen - d Manuscript damaged. - e See this volume, p. 501.- f the British Museum Library parallel lines were drawn and whatever was used, whether pebbles or other visual signs, denoted units on the first line, tens on the second, hundreds on the third, thousands on the fourth, etc. Such abacuses were in use throughout almost the whole of the Middle Ages and are still employed by the Chinese today. As for more complex mathematical calculations, at the time when these are found among the Romans, the latter already had the multiplica-tion table — Pythagoras's — which, however, was still very awkward and cumbersome, for that table consisted partly of its own characters, partly of letters of the [Gre]ek (later Roman) alphabet. But [since] division merely boils down to the analysis of the dividend into factors and the tables in question were taken to fairly high figures, this must have sufficed for the reduction of expressions such as MDXL, etc. Every number, e.g. M, was separately reduced to the factors which it formed with the divisor, after which the quotients were added together. Thus, for example, M divided [by] two=D (500), D divided by 2 = 250 e[tc]. That the ancient method placed insuperable difficulties in the way of very complex calculations is evident from the artifices to which that outstanding mathematician Archimedes had recourse.
As regards the 'darkness of outer space', this necessarily follows from the theory of light. Since colours only appear when light-waves are reflected by solids and since, in the intervals between the heavenly bodies, there is neither atmosphere nor any other kind of solid, these intervals must be pitch black. They allow the whole light-ray to pass through, which is simply another way of saying that they are dark. Moreover, space outside the atmosphere of the planets, etc., is fated to be damnably 'koud en kilm since the rays generate warmth only when they strike a solid, which is also why, summer or winter, it is icy cold in the higher air strata of our atmosphere — that is, owing to the thinness, hence the relative insubstantiality, of these layers. Bur
Ought this affliction to afflict us Since it but adds to our delight?h
And what good are light and warmth WHERK THERE IS NO EYE TO SEE
THE ONE, AND NO ORGANIC MATTER TO KEEL THE OTHER? L o n g a g O t h e W o r t h y Epicurus had the sensible idea of banishing the gods to the intermundia (i.e. the empty spaces of the universe)[581] and, indeed, R.V 'perfect curs' are fit denizens for those cold, cool, pitch dark,
'stoß"elooze wereldruimte'.d
310. Marx to Engels. 19 April
You can see what a good Dutchman I've become from the fact that little Jenny has already read half the Camera obscura* and Laura, me docente,h a large part OF THE FIRST von ME OF THE Aardrijks-kunde,c while even Eleanor knows 'Dans Nonneken dans' and 'Klompertjen en zijn wijfjen"* by heart. Best compliments from THE WHOLE FAMILY to you, and Karl, not forgetting madame la générale." With the weather being so fine, you surely won't have overlong to wait for your own beau jour!
Your affectionate nephew,
Karl Marx
310
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
London, 19 April 1864
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill, N. W.
DEAR FREDERICK,
The furunculosis persisted until ABOUT a week ago, which made me very 'peevish' and it was not until a day or two since that I was able to start work again.
This month, April the first's privilege of being ALL FOOLS DAY, has been extended, at least in London, to the whole of April. Garibaldi and Palmerston FOR EVER on the WALLS of London! [5 8 2] Garibaldi with Pam and Clanricarde, and extolled by the ENGLISH POLICEMEN, at the Crystal Palace![583] In England there aren't any mouchardsgl T h e Bandiera brothers would have something to say about that.[584]
Garibaldi and 'Karl Blind'! What a talent for puffing himself u p the last-named hydrocephalous crab-louse displays! 'Mr Karl 19 1864
Blind', the Athenaeum announces, 'HAS JOINED THE SHAKESPEARE COMMITTEE!'[585] T h e fellow doesn't understand one line of S. I had to put u p considerable resistance and have doubtless completely forfeited W e b e r V esteem. For the Workers' Society[3] (incited by W.) wanted m« to compose an address to Gar., and then call on him with a deputation. I REFUSED FLATLY.
When are you going to come here? T h e family is expecting you. Tomorrow sees the start of the conference [5 7 7] that will cause the scales to fall from the Teutons' eyes. Collet has announced himself for Thursday b and, at the same time, sent me a whole LOT of German literature on the Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg mess. Tomorrow I shall have to get down to a serious study of this disagreeable affair so as to be ready with my answers for the fellow, who has the entire genealogy' [8 6] at his fingertips. You may have noticed that the wretched Disraeli has spared Pam the trouble of answering Osborne's and Kinglake's motions on Schleswig-Holstein at the impending conference. Yesterday, Disraeli gave notice that he would put the PREVIOUS QUESTION. In all the SERIOUS AFFAIRS of the past 2 or 3 years (e.g. the Afghanistan business[297]) he has extricated OLD Pam from the MUDDLE.
You will see how pitiful (I mean what a DONKEY) Garibaldi is — he has been half KILLED, incidentally, by John Bull's EMBRACE — from the following, which is not, OF COURSE, common knowledge.
At the secret revolutionaries' congress in Brussels (September 1863)—which had Garibaldi as its nominal CHIEF — it was decided that G. should go to London, but do so incognito and thus catch the metropolis unawares. He was then to COME OUT for Poland IN THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE WAY. Instead of that, the fellow goes and frater-nises with Pam! I'd rather be a louse in sheep's clothing than a man of such brave stupidity, as Shakespeare says in Troilus and Cressida.c
Kindest regards to Lupus and Lizzy.d
Your
K. M.
Little Jenny still has a cough but strikes me as being much better. T h e new house [3 8 7] has, IN FACT, cheered her u p a great deal.
311. Engels to Marx. 29 April
311
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 29 April 1864
Dear Moor,
You will, presumably, at long last have rid yourself of the furunculosis. Meanwhile, Lupus has been suffering most vilely from the rheumatic headaches he was already having when you were here,[573] and from which he has since had no respite — on the contrary, they have got worse and worse so that he's had no proper sleep for weeks. He's already been confined to bed again on several occasions, and that sod Borchardt does nothing at all about it; he treats the touch of gout Lupus has got in his toe (but which doesn't bother him at all now, whereas the headaches and insomnia are really sapping his strength) with Colchicum and doesn't even give him an occasional dose of opium. Once or twice I have spoken to Lupus pretty seriously about the matter, but you know how much good that does. He believes himself to be under an obligation to B., and that's that. All the QUACK has done is to cup him of ten ounces of blood! That was the day before yesterday. This evening I shall visit Lupus again and see how things are going. Three weeks ago I too had a violent and most painful attack of fheumatism of the respiratory muscles, but Gumpert cured me of it within 24 hours.
The Garibaldi tomfoolery(1) came to a fitting end. The way the chap was shown the door after a week of being gaped at by the SWELLS is really too splendid and could happen nowhere but in England. It would be the ruin of anyone except Garibaldi, and even for him it's tremendously mortifying to have served the English aristocracy as a NINE DAYS' WONDER and then to have been thrown out into the street. They treated him as an out-and-out romantic. How could the fellow submit to it and how he could be so stupid as to take these Dundrearys for the English people? However, anyone who is not now convinced of the wholly bourgeois nature of this gentleman will never be convinced. For to respect the English press is almost worse than respecting the PEELERS.[588] And as for his EXIT! Well, that beats everything.
But our friend Bismarck is also a lumen." Of him it might even be said: n'est pas Soulouque qui veuù First he mimics Bonaparte's Press Laws, and now he's sending worthy Corporal William to Schleswig to induce the people to vote for annexation by Prussia! [589] This jackass seems to imagine that the highways and byways are strewn with Savoys and Nices and that these are to be had for the taking.[590] As the Dagbladet quite rightly points out, by the way, the Prussian reactionary press has been in such a state,of exaltation since the capture of Düppel,[591] and the chaps are so above themselves that one can count with certainty on the gang's coming a really bad cropper within a very short space of time.
I was a bit surprised by the way the Prussian army carried out the assault. The attack took place with 4 brigades (24 battalions) against 4 Danish brigades (16 battalions), i.e. by no means disproportionate superiority for an assault of this kind. Admittedly, the Danes had been greatly worn down by artillery fire but so, for that matter, had the Russians at Sevastopol, and to un even greater extent.[592] However, the fact that in 20 minutes the Prussians took the first 6 field-works and then, in 2 hours — N.B. without orders, for the worthy princec wanted to call it a day — the whole peninsula/ including the bridgehead, and inflicted losses of 5,000 on approximately 13,000 Danes, is more than one might have credited the fellows with. You will, by the way, remember that I have always said Prussian fire-arms — rifles as well as guns — were the best in the world, and that has been borne out here. On the other hand, the conference377 will soon reveal what marionettes their diplomats are. What with Russia, Boustrapa,[167]
and Palmerston, aided and abetted by the 'grand' policy of Bismarck, the 'fall' that follows after pride can hardly be long in coming. But how about money? After all, the 22 millions from the public treasury and the railway loan of 6 millions must have been squandered by now, and what then?
I shall descend on you one of these Friday evenings but not, of course, without writing to you first.
Write soon, and give my regards to the FAMILY.
Your
F. E. First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen Printed according to the original F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, join Published in English for the first time
312. Engels to Marx. 1 May
312
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] Sunday, 1 May '64 6.50 p.m.
Dear Moor,
I have just been to see Lupus, who also had Gumpert and Borchardt with him. They don't agree over the diagnosis, which doesn't matter a rap for the time being, since it's a question of restoring his strength first, and here G. at once intervened more energetically. Yesterday I asked B. about port but he thought that, as L. wasn't quite lucid, he would be better without it and, only this morning, suggested — Spanish fly! Today Lupus is to get a beerglassful of champagne every 2 hours and this evening will, in addition, be given brandy in the BEEF TEA he takes in between times. That scoundrel Borchardt who only last Wednesday let ten ounces of his blood!!c For the rest, the situation is very bad, because whichever diagnosis may be right, one is as bad as the other. B.'s diagnosis is meningitis, inflammation of the inner scalp with a tendency to suppurate. G. hadn't yet been able to make one this morning, but thought that, in addition to the above, there might be uraemia (passage of urine into the blood as a result of degeneration of the kidneys) or anaemia with a localised affection of the nervous system. He had another call to make after the consultation, and so I was unable to talk to him at any length; as soon as I have heard his opinion I shall write to you.
I should like you to come up tomorrow for a few days.[593] I foresee that I shall be very busy this week, and it's always a good thing, of course, if one of us sees the doctors a couple of times a day and promptly obtains whatever has to be obtained. Besides, it would be very nice for me anyway. If you are coming, send me a telegram from your station of departure to 7 Southgate, St. Mary's; it only costs a shilling.
In order to force his hand over the consultation, I was compelled to tell B. yesterday that you had just as much confidence in G. as I had and that, if Lupus were to die, you would never forgive me had I failed to call G. in for a
313. Engels to Marx. 2 May
consultation. He took it very badly, but we are certainly not going to allow Lupus to be murdered for the sake of this bastard's vanity.
Your
F. E.
313
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 2 May 1864
Dear Moor,
The outlook for Lupus grows daily worse. His state of delirium is getting more and more chronic. He still recognises the people who come to see him quite well, but in between times he talks in a completely RAMBLING fashion and it is only after taking a strong dose of stimulants that he has his more lucid moments. However, these moments are becoming dimmer and briefer all the time. Gumpert has very little hope now; his diagnosis is softening of the brain as a result of the prolonged headaches brought on by cerebral hyperaemia and of the insomnia thus induced. There's no longer any question of Borchardt's meningitis; he has accepted G.'s diagnosis and generally does everything G. suggests, though he seems to have very hazy ideas about the origin of the headaches.
Each day Lupus spends in this stupor, from which stimulants are incapable of rousing him, naturally makes matters worse and, if the next 3-4 days bring no improvement, the poor devil will go under either from debility or apoplexy or, if he pulls through, he'll be an idiot. This alternative — death or imbecility — is really too frightful. Gumpert, of course, is extremely guarded when talking about his colleague but I'm sure of the fact that L. could have been saved if the headache had been properly treated and if, in particular, something had been done to enable L. to sleep. But it was not until last Thursday, after five weeks of insomnia, that B.
314. Engels to Marx. 2 May ,
gave him some opium. On top of that the blood-letting on Wednesday. He has persisted in treating him for gout, prescribing nothing but Colchicum and the like. It was only the onset of delirium that evidently caused him to have second thoughts.
There is another consultation at 9 tomorrow morning which I shall also attend to see what he does. B. intends to get a male nurse for him today. If only the poor fellow pulls through!
Your
F. E.
314
ENGELS TO MARX(1)
IN LONDON
[Manchester, 2 May 1864] Monday evening 8.30
Dear Marx,
Lupus is going rapidly downhill. He's having hallucinations, keeps jumping out of bed, etc. What we're short of now is a man to sit up with him and stop him injuring himself. There is only one professional male nurse up here, and he is engaged. Admittedly, Borchardt could get hold of one from a nearby lunatic asylum, but so long as there is the slightest chance of recovery he doesn't, of course, want that kind of person, being anxious to avoid subsequent gossip and the harm it would do L. He now wonders whether you might perhaps have a reliable man, who doesn't need to be a nurse by profession, far better not, but is simply reliable in that he will do what he is told and not fall asleep — maybe you have such a man and can send him up here first thing tomorrow, for we are provided for only up till tomorrow and periculum in mora.* S'il s'en trouve,b send him at once to Borchardt, Rusholme Road, Manchester.
315. Marx to Jenny Marx. 9 May
If you have nobody, Borch. asks that you telegraph him first thing tomorrow (it costs a shilling), so that he and Gurapert can continue to look round up here.
I have just telegraphed you to this effect, but the present letter is necessary to an understanding of the telegram.
Your
F. E.
315
MARX TO JENNY MARX[239]
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 9 May 1864 Dear Jenny,
POOR Lupus died today, at 10 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. I have just left his death-bed.
I went to see him on the evening of the day I arrived from London," but he was unconscious. The next morning he recognised me. I saw him in company with Engels and the two doctorsh
and, when we were leaving, he called after us (in a weak voice): 'You will come back, won't you?' It was a moment of lucidity. Soon afterwards he relapsed into a state of apathy. Up till Thursday— or really Friday' — evening, things hung in the balance so that there was some doubt about the outcome. But he was unconscious from Friday evening until the moment of his passing away. So long did it take for him to die, though he was not in pain. He was unquestionably the victim of that bombastic bungler/ I shall write at greater length tomorrow.
In him we have lost one of our few friends and fellow fighters. He was a man in the best sense of the word. His funeral will be on Friday.'
Your
Karl First published, in the language of the Printed according to the original original (German), in Annali, an. I, Milan, 1958
316. Marx to Jenny Marx. lOMay[239]
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 10 May 1864
Dear Jenny,
POOR Lupus, as it now transpires — and as Borchardt already knew — had accumulated a nest-egg by dint of hard and unremit-ting work.
In his will (of December 1863) he appointed Engels, Borchardt and myself his executors, and the notary has just read us his will. In it he leaves:
1. £100 to the Manchester Schiller Institute[429]
2. £100 to Engels 3. £100 to Borchardt and 4. The entire residue, amounting to six or seven hundred pounds, to me (to you and the children should I predecease him; he took care of all eventualities), likewise his books and all other effects.
I must now go to his lodgings and sort out his papers. Luckily he was living — during the final 6 or 7 weeks, at any rate — with exceptionally good and worthy people and enjoyed the best possible nursing. The inane telegrams about nursing attendants(1)— of which Gumpert knew nothing — were sheer ostentation and consequentiality on the part of Bombastus B.
A thousand kisses to you and the children.
Your
Karl
317. Marx to Jenny Marx. 13May
317
MARX TO JENNY MARX[239]
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] Friday, 13 May 1864
Dear Heart,
Today was the day of our good comrade's funeral.a We purposely didn't send out any invitations, otherwise half the town would have been there. So, it was attended by Borchardt, Gumpert, Engels, Dronke, Steinthal, Marotzki (the Friends of Light[594] Protestant pastor at whose house Lupus used to teach and who came as a personal friend), Beneke (one of the leading business men here), Schwabe (ditto), 3 other business men, a few boys and some 15-20 members of the 'LOWER CLASSES' amongst whom Lupus was very popular. I naturally made a short funeral oration. It was an office by which I was much affected so that once or twice my voice failed me. Freiligrath wrote, begging to be excused, because of the presence in London of his principal, Fazy. Engels, and more especially Dronke, refused to countenance this excuse, and tomorrow D. will be taking him to task in London.
I shall have to stay here for at least another 3 or 4 days in order to get through with the whole business, pay the estate duty, swear oaths, etc. Naturally I shall not leave Manchester until everything is settled.
At first, it was thought that poor Lupus was suffering from incipient softening of the brain. This was wrong, however. Gumpert had previously said that he was suffering from cerebral hyperaemia (excessive accumulation of blood in the brain). This was confirmed at the post mortem, which also proved that he would still be alive today had he received correct treatment of the most common or garden kind. Borch. had completely and utterly neglected the thing in the most unscrupulous way. And yet one can't raise a shindy about it, if only because of B.'s family, who were deeply attached to Lupus (especially B.'s eldest daughter) and did a great deal for him, and whom he for his part thought highly of. All the same I refused B.'s invitation to dinner today (at which Engels, etc., were to be present) on the grounds that I could not accept hospitality on the day of Wolff's funeral.
318. Marx to His Daughter, Jenny. 17 May
Dronke asks you to excuse him for not having replied to your letter. The poor little man was too much distressed by the death of his children to be able to write.
Lupus had carefully kept all our children's letters, and it was only a few weeks ago that he again told Mrs Borchardt how much he enjoyed getting little Tussy's notes.
The day before yesterday Marotzki (while confirming the children, amongst them one of the younger Borchardts) pronounced a public eulogy on Lupus in his church. I don't believe anyone in Manchester can have been so universally beloved as our poor little friend (who as a child broke both legs and was in pain for years until they had healed again). Amongst the letters he left, I found evidence of the warmest sympathy on the part of all kinds of people — pupils, both girls and boys, and, in particular, their mothers.
My warmest greetings to all.
Your
Karl
Send 3 photographs of DEAR Eleanor immédiatement.
1958
318
MARX TO HIS DAUGHTER, JENNY
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] Tuesday, 17 May 1864
Sweet child, Badman,
Probably I shall leave Manchester on Thursday (May 19) this week, and probably Engels will come with me.[595] If arrangements be changed, I'll advertise you timely.
I visited Ernest Jones yesterday and renewed my old friendship with him. He received me very cordially. Eichhoff, who is here at this moment, and sends to all of you his compliments, wrote me this morning that the son-in-law of Dr. Rohde — Marriett — has suddenly died; the daughter" being thus thrown back upon Liverpool and the parents. Eichhoff has at last settled down as a commercial employé.
Little Dronke, who to-day arrived from London, told funny stories as to the meeting he had a few days since with Freiligrath. Fazy, Freiligrath's master, was present at the rendezvous at 2 Royal Exchange Buildings.
Strohn, an old friend of mine — who, unhappily, finds himself in a very bad state of health, and whom I was hardly able to recognise — came down from Bradford to see me; Eichhoff having told him of my sojourn at Manchester.
Gumpert has been blessed with a son. I address these lines to you, because you will probably have to make room for Engels, your room being, I believe, the only disposable one. You don't want to care about wine which we bring with us, but a dozen bottles of Pale Ale for our Manchester man will be welcome. J cannot finish my business here,[596] because this week is a holiday for lawyers here. So things will not be settled before next week, and in my absence.
I have seen, from Möhmchen's" letter, with great concern, that Marie Lormier is not going on in the right direction. These doctors are a lot of quacks.
Any letter you'll address me, will still find me at Manchester, if you post it tomorrow before 5 o'clock p.m.
I hope, my dear child, to find you in full bloom. My humble compliments to your successor, and my knowing wink to mine secretary.
Your truly
Old one
I should very much like to buy here Manchester silk for the whole family, but the delay that, consequent upon the holiday, has taken place in the settlement of affairs, prevents me from indulging my fancy.
G. J. Harney, as you may tell Möhmchen, has again married, and, moreover, left Europe for Australia.[598]
319. Engels to Hermann Engels. 24 May
319
ENGELS T O HERMANN ENGELS
IN BARMEN
Manchester, 24 May 1864
Dear Hermann,
You must excuse my keeping you waiting some little while for a reply to your letter of the 7th and that of the 18th.
As regards the £"1,000, I shan't be able to remit this to you before 1 July, or perhaps a little later. That is to say I must await the statement of accounts on 30 June of this year, since G. Ermen will release himself from the contract if so much as a penny is missing from the £10,000 I have to put up. Until then, therefore, I must tread carefully. I also mentioned this to Mother in my letter of 7 April,[599] and hence the best thing would be for you to pay Wiebelhaus & Busch from over there. In any case, for a sum of the order of £1,000, I wouldn't be able to lay my hands on bills as short as a week after date. More about this matter, then, in July or August; I am in no hurry whatever.
It had struck me, by the way, that this £"1,000 could be partially reimbursed by my prevailing on G. E. to send off to you in advance the interest amounting to £375 due on 30 June; but, since our bankers are now paying us 6% interest, he'll take good care not to give you the money at 5%.
As regards my balance with you over there, this should be dealt with as follows:
On 30 June, the £10,000 which, under the terms of the contract, must remain here, will be debited to me over there. Deduct from that the portion of my balance there on which the interest accrues to me; as to the remainder I must refund you the interest à 5%. The portion of my balance of which Mother has the usufruct would best continue to be credited to me separately, since it doesn't figure in my favour when interest is calculated and would therefore only muddle up the calculation.
The one question that may have to be considered in this connection is the exchange rate at which £s are to be converted into talers. In my view, the simplest thing in all present and future cases relating to my account would be to take the average rate of 6 talers 20 silver groschen, as Father also used to do in his books, so that the £10,000 will be debited to me as 66,666.20 talers, while all
320. Marx to Engels. 26 May
reimbursements made by me in £s will be credited at the same rate. Think it over and let me know what you think about it.
As regards the transfer of the £10,000 to my account, you have no need to advise G. E. further; the contract, to which you are all subject, is sufficient.
Very many thanks for the pictures. They've touched up your face a bit more than is necessary; apart from that, they're very good. But you must now see to it that the other ones for my album follow on soon, and also remind the good Boellings about it, for so far I have none of them at all. In the case of the Blanks, I don't have one of Maria Senior, Emil Junior, Rudolf, and the younger ones.
Apropos. Should Ermen &: Engels over there be asked to pay the costs of an insertion, to which I was a co-signatory, in the deaths' column of the Kölner," Breslauerb and Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, I would ask you to attend to it and debit me accordingly.[600]
Give my love to Mother, if she is still in Barmen, and tell her that I've been keeping very well. Much love to Emma' (she's still not as plump as she used to be, but I trust that will resolve itself) and the little ones as well as to Rudolf and family, the Blanks, and the Boellings.
Your
Friedrich
320
MARX TO ENGELS[249]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] Thursday, 26 May 1864 Dear Frederick,
It came as a very 'pleasant' surprise this morning (I had not been able to sleep the preceding night) to find my chest again adorned with two 'charming' FURUNCLES. Will you consult Gumpert
" Kölnische Zeitung - b Breslauer Zeitung - c Emma Engels - d Rudolf Engels as to what I should do? I don't want to take iron since I already have a tendency to cerebral congestion. Nor do I wish to go to Allen, there being nothing I dread so much as having to recommence a regular course of treatment, thus disrupting my present work, and I simply must get the thing done at long last.[547]
Despite all that people said about how well I looked, I have all the while felt there was SOMETHING WRONG and the tremendous resolution I have to summon u p before I can tackle more difficult subjects also contributes to this sense of inadequacy. You EXCUSE THIS SPINOZISTIC TERM. Have OUR POOR Lupus's books been sent off to London? h01 I am worried about their non-arrival because — or so I understood — your WAREHOUSEMEN were supposed to have sent them off on Thursday (last).
WHAT DO YOU SAY OF GRANTS OPERATIONS?™2 All that The Times chooses to admire, OF COURSE, is Lee's strategy disguised as RETREATS.[3] Says Tussy this morning, ' I T CONSIDERS THIS VERY CANNY, I DARESAY.' There's nothing I would be happier to see than success for Butler. It would be of inestimable value, were he to enter Richmond first. It would be bad if Grant had to retreat, BUT I THINK THAT FELLOW KNOWS WHAT HE IS ABOUT. It is to him, at any rate, that credit is due for the first Kentucky campaign, Vicksburg and the drubbing Bragg received in Tennessee.
Enclosed a note from Jones, in view of which you will, no doubt, be able to invite him FOR ANOTHER DAY.60'
T h e WHOLE FAMILY send you their regards.
Your
K. M.
77«" Times, 25 and 26 May 1864, leading articles.
321. Engels to Marx. 30 May ,
321
ENGELS TO MARX[249]
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 30 May 1864
Dear Moor,
The books haven't gone off yet, nor has the wine. They will go off together. Have heard nothing from either Borchardt or the lawyer; shall call on the latter the day after tomorrow and give him the power of attorney.[604]
Gumpert says that, if the furuncles are merely stragglers, you should do nothing further about them. I discussed little Jenny with him; he says it would seem to be a chlorotic condition and that sudden attacks of asthma are common in such cases, and are due to circulatory disorders; nothing could be done save treat the condition as a whole, nor could he think of anything beyond what Allen is already doing. Anyhow, he didn't seem to take too serious a view of the thing.
The Virginian campaign is once again characterised by inconclu-siveness, or more precisely, by the difficulty of taking it to any sort of decision on terrain like this.[602] I set no store by the news received per Scotia; all it means is that a week's rain has saved Lee from the necessity of fighting battle after battle à la Solferino.M5
And for him, that means a great deal. Another 2 such battles and his army, which had to withdraw to a new position every night and was in any case in a very sorry state, would hardly have been capable of making a stand anywhere before Richmond. Certainly Grant also benefited from the standstill, but not to the same extent. The reinforcements he is now obtaining won't be worth very much. But I shouldn't be surprised if Lee were soon to withdraw to Richmond. Then the decisive battle will take place there.
Bismarck seems to have colossal good luck; it really looks as though there's going to be an Augustenburgian peace.[606] As yet I can make neither head nor tail of it, but my view would seem to be confirmed by the very hectoring article in today's Morning Post? (It says, inter alia, that Schleswig should be partitioned and — the Eider form the new frontier between Danish and German
•' Tlte Morning Post, No. 28222, 30 May 1864, leading article.
Schleswigl) Nevertheless, plausible though it all seems, I can hardly see the Russians giving up, without more ado, all the spoils of 1851/52,[607] the less so since they would not, so far as one can see, get anything in return.
I have been engrossed in the arithmetic in your Francoeur? a section you would seem pretty well to have ignored, if the failure to correct the scandalous printing errors in the figures is anything to go by. Though individual bits are quite elegant, the practical aspect of arithmetic is handled in a shockingly inept and superficial manner, being better taught at any German school. I also doubt whether it is practical to discuss things such as roots, powers, series, logarithms, etc., even at elementary level, merely in terms of numerals (without any recourse to algebra and, IN FACT, without presupposing an elementary knowledge of the same). Although the use of numerical examples by way of illustration may be a good idea, I should say that to limit oneself to numerals is, in this case, less conducive to clarity than simple algebraic treatment with a+b, precisely because the general expression is simpler and clearer in algebraic form and is something which cannot be dispensed with here. Admittedly, this particular section is really beneath the dignity of the mathematician par excellence.
I shall send you Danskeb papers tomorrow. In several Jutland towns Prussian officers are said to have objected very strongly before carrying out the confiscation in accordance with orders. Generally speaking, there have been no complaints anywhere about the troops, only about the generals and their orders. In the Dagbladet England is, if anything, more roundly abused than in Germany.
No other news, save that it's bitterly cold. Warm regards to your wife and the girls. I HOPE TUSSY IS CONTENT WITH THE COTTON.
Your
F. E.
322. Marx to Engels. 3 June
322
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 3 June 1864
Dear Frederick,
Herewith
1. A scrap of paper sent me today in a wrapper from Brussels by jackass Kertbeny;
2. Cutting from the Rheinische Zeitung containing an obituary of Lupus — written by Eisner, now one of the editors of the Breslauer Zeitung, from which the Rheinische has reprinted it(1);
3. Another cutting from the Rhein. Zeit., in which I would draw your attention to the article 'Der feudale Sozialismus'[13];
4. Letter from one Klings of Solingen to one Moll over here. To enable you to understand this letter, I should explain that Moll (and also a companion of hisb) is a working man from Solingen, who (along with the aforesaid companion) has evaded a 4 months' prison sentence (the result of Lassalle's performances last year). Klings, ditto a working man, is Baron Izzy's authorised representative in Solingen.
The two Solingen refugees came to see me here; they informed me of their enthusiasm for Izzy and how the workers had harnessed themselves to his carriage when he was last in Solingen. They assumed as a matter of course that we two were hand-in-glove with Izzy (who, when last in Elberfeld, made a speech about Lupus[608]). Klings, they said, was a former member of the League,[63]
as were all the working men who were leaders of Izzy's movement in the Rhine Province, and that, now as ever, all were our resolute supporters. He also showed me Klings' letter, and I asked whether I might have it to send to you.[609] To this he assented. So, don't return it. I did not, of course, enlighten the chaps as to our relations, or rather non-relations, with Izzy, but got others to drop some pretty vague hints.
Now the men are hanging about here, unemployed. 50 talers are to be sent them from Solingen, the local Workers' Societyc is 3 1864
giving them £2; we shall be collecting a bit more here, and it would be a good thing if Manchester could contribute a pound or two. T h e fellows must be conveyed to America, since they are factory hands (Solingen cutlers, etc.) and are quite unsuitable for London handicrafts. 'What's come over me?' I asked myself more than once while reading Izzy's Lohnarbeit und Kapital? For in its essentials it seemed to me familiar, literally so (if embellished in the Izzian manner), yet not cribbed direct from the Manifesto!' etc. Then, a couple of days ago, I happened to look out my series of articles on 'Wage-labour and Capital' in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (1849) which were in fact merely a printed version of lectures I had delivered in 1847 at the Brussels Workers' Society.[131] There I found my Izzy's immediate source and, as a special act of friendship, I shall reproduce the whole caboodle from the N. Rh. Z. as a note or appendix to my book—ON FALSE PRETENCES, of course, and without any mention of Izzy.B1° H e won't enjoy it in the least.
The books have arrived,[601] ditto the wine, for which many thanks. Tussy asks me 'TO GIVE YOU HER LOVE AND TO TELL YOU THAI YOUR
COTTON HAS SOMEWHAT IMPROVED'.
Borkheim has made ABOUT £ 2 , 0 0 0 — u n d e r the patronage of Oppenheim, the 'Jew Süss'c of Egypt. Oppenheim, to whom, according to the account B. himself gave me, he played more or less the part of jester in the land of the pyramids, wanted to keep him there on the spot. But Europeans die there like flies, so B. arranged instead to be entrusted from time to time with a little bit of business by Abul Haim, as Oppenheim is called by the Arabs. This summer he will again visit Constantinople to that end.
T h e girls a n d m a d a m e send you their kindest regards. MY coMri.iMENTs TO Liccy.d
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Apropos.
Wherever honours are being handed out, there friend Freiligrath is sure to be. Cf. Eisner's obituary. Remember Harney's funeral oration for Schramm. And now New York has seen the
323. Engels to Marx. 3 June
publication by a local society of a very sumptuous Record of the Revolution* in which all the EVENTS, documents, etc., of the present Civil War are REGISTERED from the time it first started. WELL, this RECORD has been sent gratis to some 20 or 30 people (including various European libraries), among them the QUEEN OF ENGLAND,[1]" J. Stuart Mill, Cobden, Bright, and — Freiligrath. He informed me of this, with the phrase that the Yankees had 'afforded him great pleasure and done him a great honour', and gave me the accompanying letter to read along with the printed list of the fortunate few. I should dearly like to know what the good fellow has done, might do, or intends to do for the Yankees. But loi générale': Freiligrath is to receive the honneurs on behalf of the German nation because the worthy citizen adopts so worthy and neutral an attitude, 'and, come to that, hasn't really learnt anything'.[611]
323
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 3 June 1864
Dear Moor,
I beg to confirm my lastd and today would humbly inform you that Lupus's will passed through the COURT OF PROBATE[612] the day before yesterday and that I have taken possession of the document in question. I have also shown it to the bank and had it registered there, and on Monday or Tuesdaye shall draw the money from the bank (I can do this on my own without Borchardt) and remit it to you. There is about £230. I shall try and see B. tomorrow or on Monday and shall then do all I can to get the matter speedily wound up. The approximate amount of estate duty—£12f—will
" The Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events... - b Victoria - c general law
324. Marx to Engels. 7 June
be retained by me up here plus a bit extra for the LAWYER'S bill, etc. The latter tells me that to safeguard oneself against any possibility of future claims one should, about 1 month after PROBATE (i.e., as from 1 July), insert 3 successive notices in.the Gazette," Times and LOCAL PAPERS, addressed to undeclared creditors and limiting the period of liability. This means the final settlement will be somewhat further delayed. The demand for payment of duty will be made in September or thereabouts (so until then interest on the amount in question will be recoverable), after which we shall have to deal with Wood's account and pay over the money; it will then be possible to dispose of the matter finally.
I have discovered the chap to whom Lupus went to be photographed and who has the original negative. I have had 24 prints done, 4 of which I enclose; you might give one each to Pfänder and Eccarius, and if you want any more they are yours for the asking. I took this opportunity of having another one taken of myself, the result of which you will find enclosed; people here say it is very good.b
Free Press received with thanks. What will POOR Collet set his hand to, now that Othello's OCCUPATION is GONE? And that poor, clever boyc who is party to all the secrets of highest diplomacy?
Many regards. How goes it with the furuncles?
Your
F. E.
time
324 MARX TO ENGELS[613]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 7 June 1864 Dear Frederick,
Have received your photogram, also those of Lupus. I need AT LEAST 4 more COPIES of the latter. Your photogram is excellent. The children say that it makes you look a 'pleasant subject'.(1) As the new photograms we intended to have taken have not yet materialised, little Jenny yesterday sent you the glass thing. The Dagbladet received with THANKS.
The enclosed letter from Liebknecht which I got yesterday will interest you in several respects. You should place it in the archives, like the other letters of this kind I send you. I immediately replied to L., generally commending him for his attitude and only reprimanding him for the silly stipulation — our collaboration — he made in regard to the proposed publication of Lassalle's PAPER— now happily abandoned.[614] I explained that, while we consider it politic to give Lassalle a completely free rein for the time being, we cannot identify ourselves with him in any way.... In the course of this week I shall send him (Liebknecht) some money. The poor devil seems to be doing damned badly. He has given a very good account of himself and his continued sojourn in Berlin is most important to us.
Borkheim showed me a letter from the great Orges, presently in Vienna. O. intimates that 'softening of the brain' has 'got the better' of the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, that 'particularism' rather than 'Teutonism' holds sway over the paper, that one of the four proprietors of the Augsburg A. Z. had 'insulted' him (the 'great Orges') 'almost personally', that his hands had long been tied and he had finally resigned, etc. SERVES O. RIGHT. The fellow treated us vilely over the Vogt affair.(2)
Borkheim has given me very exact particulars in writing, authenticated on the spot, concerning progress on the Suez Canal. I shall see that Daud Pashac is advised of the same.
As for the Danish affair, the Russians are in a very difficult position. They drove Prussia into the war by promising her the earth and, as a quid pro quo for Prussia's help, past and present, over the Polish business,[607] held out great prospects in regard to
Schleswig-Holstein. Needless to say, handsome William,d now that he looks upon himself as WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, cannot be fobbed off in the same way as his brilliant predecessor.[615] As for Palmerston, his hands are tied by the Queen.e Bonaparte, whom the Russians and their Pam wanted to use as a scapegoat to propitiate the Germans, HAS REASONS OF HIS OWN for playing the deaf-mute. Come to that, aside from a possible secret treaty with Prussia, the Russians are now chiefly concerned with 'German sympathies'. It is therefore possible that, under SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, they will 'sacrifice' Schleswig-Holstein, just as, in the 3rd partition of Poland, Catherine II declared the cession of the present kingdom of Poland to the Prussians to be a great sacrifice on her part — with the mental reservation, of course, that, when the time came, the sacrifice would be retrieved.[5]" The outrageous step the Russians have now taken in the Caucasus,[616] watched by the rest of Europe with idiotic indifference, virtually compels them — and indeed makes it easier for them — to turn a blind eye to what is happening elsewhere. These 2 affairs, the suppression of the Polish insurrection and the annexation of the Caucasus, I regard as the two most important events to have taken place in Europe since 1815. Pam and Bonaparte can now say that they have not ruled in vain, and, if the Schleswig-Holstein war[572] has served no other purpose than to hoodwink Germany and France about those two great events, it will have done its job for the Russians, whatever the outcome of the London Conference.[577] You will see from Liebknecht's letter that the Prussian liberal press is too cowardly even so much as to remark on the continued surrender of Polish refugees by the Prussians. Bismarck has killed it stone dead with the Schleswig-Holstein business.
The AMERICAN NEWS looks very good to me; I was particularly delighted by today's LEADER in The Times, in which it is proved that Grant has been continually beaten and may perhaps be punished for his defeats — with the capture of Richmond!
Salut.
Your
Moor
325. Engels to Marx. 9 June
325
ENGELS TO MARX[249]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 9 June 1864
Dear Moor,
Your telegram received; the other halves of the five banknotes follow herewith. I have cleaned up the glass photogram" a bit and now find that it's very good. I shall show it to Gumpert and his wife this evening.
Clearly it's of the utmost importance to us that Liebknecht should be in Berlin — to spring surprises on Izzy and also, at an appropriate moment, quietly to enlighten the workers at large about our attitude towards him. At all events, we must keep him there" and support him to some extent. If you send him some money now, it will encourage him a great deal and, if you think any more is needed, let me know and I'll send you a five pound note for him.
Apropos obituary for Lupus. We must do a kind of biography; I think we ought to have it printed in Germany as a pamphlet, with the whole of the parliamentary debate1' as an appendix. Let's not allow the thing to slide.[617]
What do Borkheim's reports say about progress on the Suez Canal? Have matters actually got to a stage that points to its early completion?
I'm very anxious to see how things go in Virginia. The sides still seem to be almost evenly matched and mere chance, the opportunity of scoring an isolated victory over just one of Grant's corps, might restore Lee's superiority. The battle before Richmond may be fought under quite different circumstances, for Butler is certainly weaker than Beauregard, otherwise he wouldn't have let himself be forced on to the defensive and, even if one were as strong as the other, Lee, if he linked up with Beaur. at Richmond, would certainly be stronger than Grant and Butler combined. For Lee can debouch with his entire force from his fortified camp on each side of the James River, whereas Grant must detach part of
326. Marx to Engels. 16 June
his troops (to the south side of the river). But I am hoping that Grant will, nevertheless, go through with the affair; at all events, there can be no doubt that, after the first battle in the Wilderness, Lee has shown little further inclination to engage in decisive encounters in the open field,[618] on the contrary, he has always kept his main force in fortified positions and only committed himself to brief attacks. I also like the methodical pace of Grant's operations. On such terrain and with such an opponent it's the only correct method.
A collection for the Solingen chaps(1) won't produce anything up here; however, it goes without saying that I shall send you something for them. Let me know, when you've reached that stage, how much they have got for the journey and how much it will cost.
Three days ago our old Hill finally handed in his cash box, but is, understandably enough, still quite incapable of tearing himself away from the office. He still haunts it every day, just as he has always done. It was not until today that he stayed away, at least for the morning, but after his dinner couldn't stand it any longer.
Many regards.
Your
F. E.
326
MARX TO ENGELS[67]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 16 June 1864 DEAR Frederick,
THANKS FOR Dagbladet. Before I start on this letter — and so that I don't forget — here's a question for you: Are the following word groups I found in a Belgian etymologist's work b OK ANY VALUE?
Sanskrit Wer (couvrir, protéger, respecter, honorer, aimer, chérir[3]), adjective Wertas (EXCELLENT, RESPECTABLE), Gothic Wairths, ANGLO-SAXON Weorth, English worth, Lithuanian werthas, Aleman-nic Werth.
Sanskrit Wertis, Latin virtus, Gothic Wairthi, Teutonic Werth. Sanskrit Wal (couvrir, fortifier(2)), valor, value. (???) Strohn is here. Arrived yesterday. Leaves for Bradford again tomorrow. Seems to me very much better. Also more PLUCKY now.
I and various other people here have collected so much for the two Solingen chaps' that only 2 more pounds are needed to enable them to leave for New York by sailing-vessel and not be completely broke on arrival there. I am also giving them a note for Dr Jacobi, by which means we shall discover what the modest little man is ABOUT.
Herewith a letter I have received from Liebknecht who also sent a piece from the Grenzboten about Lupus.b Liebknecht will by now have got my second letter containing a 'real consideration' (as Mr Patkul calls it in his secret despatchese).
The Russians would seem to be claiming Schleswig-Holstein for themselves under the heading of Oldenburg,[619] and to be 'compensating' Prussia for it. This TRANSACTION WOULD BE TOO
CLEVER.
A Dutch orientalist, Professor Dozy of Leyden, has brought out a book' to prove that 'Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are figments; that the Israelites were idolaters; that they carried round a "stone" in the " arke des Verbunds"f; that the tribe of Simeon (driven out under Saul) went to Mecca where they built a heathen temple and worshipped stones; that, after the release from Babylon, Ezra invented the myth of the creation up to and including Joshua, and also wrote laws and dogmas, thus paving the way for reform, monotheism, etc.'.
That's what they write and tell me from Holland; they also say that the book has created a great sensation among theologians there, particularly since Dozy is the most learned orientalist in Holland and, what's more — a professor at Leyden! Outside Germany at any rate (Renan, Colenso, Dozy, etc.) there is a remarkable anti-religious movement.
327. Marx to Lion Philips. 25 June
The children send you their love, and my wife asks me to d u n you for her chain.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
(You might let me have your 'PRIVATE ADDRESS' in case there should be ANYTHING else I want to communicate to you of a Saturday evening.)
Send me Ernest Jones's ADDRESS.
327
MARX T O L I O N PHILIPS [6 7]
IN ZALT-BOMMEL
London, 25 June 1864
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill
Dear Uncle,
Very many thanks for your detailed letter. I know how onerous writing is for you on account of your eyes and, indeed, the last thing I expect is that you should answer every one of my letters. I was glad to see from what you wrote that you are physically fit, and that your equanimity has not been shaken by the revelations of Prof. Dozy.a However, since Darwin demonstrated that we are all descended from the apes, there is scarcely ANY SHOCK WHATEVER that could shake 'our ancestral pride'. That the Pentateuch b was concocted only after the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity had already been pointed out by Spinoza in his Tractatus theologico-politicus.
In the enclosed note Eleanor herself thanks you for your photogram, which is as good as such shadow pictures can ever 25 1864
hope to be. The child had already placed 'her letter' on my desk some 3 or 4 days ago.
I have had a recurrence of FURUNCLES and only got rid of them a fortnight ago. Since my work was greatly impeded by this tiresome complaint — and, in addition, the doctor's orders precluded strenuous or prolonged mental work — I have, which will surprise you not a little, been speculating — partly in American FUNDS, but more especially in English stocks, which are springing up like mushrooms this year (in furtherance of every imaginable and unimaginable joint stock enterprise), are forced up to a quite unreasonable level and then, for the most part, collapse. In this way, I have made over £400 and, now that the complexity of the political situation affords greater scope, I shall begin all over again. It's a type of operation that makes small demands on one's time, and it's worth while running some risk in order to relieve the enemy of his money.
All is well, on the whole, with my family. The doctor wishes little Jenny to have a CHANGE OF AIR and, unless you or fate have any objection, I and my 3 daughters will descend upon you towards the end of the summer.
By now the fruitless outcome of the conference[577] will have been made known ALL OVER EUROPE by telegraph. The only people in this diplomatic tragi-comedy who are imperturbably pursuing their former aims and playing a masterly game are les russes? On the one hand, they are reviving the Holy Alliance,[511] chivvying the German oxen into war, and thus diverting the eyes of Europe from their own colossal successes in Poland and Circassia; on the other, they are inciting Denmark to resist and will, thanks to Mr Palmerston, eventually succeed in getting England to declare war in support of the Protocol of 1852M0 which, as documentary evidence has now shown, was dictated by Russia[620]! The English, who did not go to war for Poland although pledged to do so by the treaties of 1815 and who did not go to war for Circassia despite the fact that possession of the Caucasus assures Russian hegemony in Asia, are to go to war and — I THINK IT PROBABLE — will go to war, for a treaty dictated by Russia, while that same Russia officially sides with the opponents of that very treaty! C'est incroyable ! b There's not a vestige of sympathy for Denmark amongst the English people (although, needless to say, antipathy and to spare for Prussia and Austria); it proved impossible to hold ONE SINGLE PUBLIC MEETING in support of the Danes; the fund started by
•' ihe Russians - b It is unbelievable!
25 1864
a few aristocrats for the Danish wounded PROVED A COMPLETE FAILURE; but the English people have no more say in their foreign policy than the man in the moon. The PUBLIC OPINION advanced in The Times, etc., is 'prescribed' by the wishes of OLD Pam himself.
Between 19 and 21 June Copenhagen was on the brink of revolution. The kinga had received a Russian despatch advising him to declare himself in favour of a personal union of the Duchies with THE DANISH CROWN. The king, a creature of the Russians (who placed his son b in Athens, his daughter c in England, and himself on the Danish throne), came out in favour of the Russian proposal, which was opposed by his minister, Monrad. Only after a two-day debate, Monrad's resignation and demonstrations IN THE STREETS OF COPENHAGEN, did the brand-new KING draw in his horns, BUT IN THIS WAY RUSSIA HAS AGAIN SHOWN THE CLOVEN FOOT. Quite apart, by the by, from its being in Russia's specific interest that the war should continue and spread, it is in her general interest that the peoples of Europe, of whom she is the common foe, should bloody each other's heads. The AIRS Prussia gives herself — handsome William as WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR — are comical. This pomp and circumstance will come to a sudden and sticky end.
T o give you an idea of what the GOOD Palmerston is like, I enclose with The Morning Post (Palmerston's private monitor) a cutting of a speech made by Ferrand during a parliamentary debate/ It is concerned solely with the appointment of a CHARITY INSPECTOR. From the passages I have marked, you will see the sort of things that are said to Pam's face in Parliament but without ever penetrating his hippopotamus's hide.
I deliberately avoided seeing Garibaldi DURING HIS STAY AT London." I wouldn't mind visiting him at Caprera, but here in London HE SERVED ONLY AS A PEG FOR EVERY SELF-IMPORTANT FOOL TO HANG HIS carte de visite UPON.
Warmest regards to THE WHOLE FAMILY. My wife also sends her regards to you AND FAMILY.
YOURS TRULY,
Ch. Marx First published, in the language of the Printed according to the original original (German), in the International Review of Social History, Vol. I, Part 1, Published in English in full for the Assen, 1956 f,rst t l m e
a Christian IX - b William - c Alexandra - d W. Ferrand's speech in the House of Commons on 16 June 1864, The Morning Post, No. 28238, 17 June 1864. - c See this volume, pp. 516, 518.
328. Marx to Engels. 1 July
329. Marx to Engels. 4 July
328
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 1 July 1864
DEAR Frederick,
Did you get the letter I sent you ABOUT 2 WEEKS ago, with the enclosure from Liebknecht, etc.? a
No answer yet from Eisner.[621]
I've been taking medicine again for ABOUT 10 days, and today have got a species of INFLUENZA as well. Hence NOT ABLE TO-DAY FOR
BETTER WRITING.
THANKS FOR Dagbladet. Salut.
Your
K. M.
329
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 4 July 1864
DEAR Frederick,
O n 3 June you wrote and told me that you would be SETTLING the business of the money with Borchardt the following day.b I have 3 reasons for wishing the thing to be settled:
1. Because of Borchardt; 2. I do not know by what rumour (perhaps deriving from Germany, Trier) I have come to be known as a 'legatee'. It's a See this volume, pp. 540-42.- b See this volume, p. 535.
4 1864
fantastic what bills I've been sent, dating back to ANCIENT TIMES {Neue Rheinische Zeitung included). 3. Had I had the money during the past 10 days, I'd have made a great deal of money on the Stock Exchange here. T h e time has come again when, with WIT and VERY LITHE MONEY, it's possible to make money in London.
For these reasons I'd like the business to be settled, after deduction, OF COURSE, from my share of the sums required for duties and other outgoings — to the LAWYER, etc.
Y o u WILL MUCH OBLIGE ME BY SETTLING THESE THINGS BEFORE JuLY 1 5 . Y O U ITlUSt excuse me for bothering you in view of your CHARGE OF BUSINESS, BUT
THERE ARE VERY SERIOUS INTERESTS AT STAKE.
Many thanks for settling the Freiligrath affair.[3] Is the portrait he sent you the sinister Faustian one little Jenny has got in her album?
My wife, who attended an auction to buy the things she still required, has purchased a sturdy CARVING KNIFE AND FORK for you and will send them off today. I had told h e r there were none in your household.
Greetings from the EMPEROR OF CHINA b et cie.
Your
K. M.
My nose, mouth, etc., still bunged u p with influenza so that I can neither smell nor taste.
During this time, being utterly incapable of work, have read Carpenter, Physiology, Lord, ditto, Kölliker, Gewebelehre, Spurzheim, The Anatomy of the Brain and the Nervous System, and Schwann and Schleiden, on the cells business.c In Lord's Popular Physiology, there's a good critique of phrenology, although the chap's religious. One passage recalls Hegel's Phenomenology; it reads:
330. Engels to Marx. 5 July
shall now devote much of my spare time to anatomy and PHYSIOLOGY and, in addition, attend lectures (where there will be practical demonstrations and dissection).
330
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 5 July 1864
Dear Moor,
When I wrote to you on 3 June, saying I would settle the business of the money on the 4th ,(1) this can only have related to the money in the bank, about which I did actually make arrangements straight away. It didn't occur to me that you would want any more money for the present, and we had in fact agreed that you would write and say if you did wish to have any more; hence I simply left it on deposit with that philistine Steinthal, who does, after all, pay 5%.
But to SETTLE the matter of the legacy from the 3rd to the 4th of June would have been promising more than I or anyone else could do. I believe I also wrote and told you that this might be a fairly lengthy business, depending as it did on all sorts of legal formalities (ADVERTISING a request to Lupus's undeclared creditors, payment of estate duty, etc.) which can't be hurried along. However, I'll leave no stone unturned to wind up the affair quickly.
But this is not, of course, to say you won't get an approximate share of the bequest as soon as you want it. You'll be getting a minimum of £600 — I hope more — so we'll be able to send you another £350 or so, and I shall see to it that you actually get it this week. I shall also badger Borchardt to send in his bill, for this is partly why much still remains to be settled.
If only you'd dropped me a couple of lines before now, I should have been able to procure the £350 for you at any time, i.e. within
331. Marx to Ferdinand Freiligrath. 12 July
a day or two. Today I can't do anything. I've been slaving away at the office all day, arguing with lawyers and G. Ermen (the DEED OF PARTNERSHIP isn't ready yet, and until then G. E. refuses to recognise my right to act as a partner[270]), on top of which I've had Dronke here. Now it's nearly 7 o'clock, and I've still had no DINNER, nor have I yet finished work. So you see how things are. Many regards.
Your
F. E. First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen Printed according to the original F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913 Published in English lor the first time
331
MARX TO FERDINAND FREILIGRATH
IN LONDON
[London,] 12 July 1864 1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park Dear Freiligrath,
I got a letter today (just now) on which the address would appear to be written in your hand. If that is so, I should like to know how the letter reached you? It is from that blackguard Brass (in Berlin) who has the impudence to ask me to forward a scrawl to Biscamp.[622] Having lost sight of that vagabond Biscamp years ago, I have, moreover, no idea how to rid myself of the scrawl, since the creature's WHEREABOUTS are not known to me.
I am writing from my bed, having had to take to it for several days because of what was a very dangerous carbuncle. This damned complaint keeps incessantly cropping up again.
On the 15th inst. I shall send Lenchen to you bearing £30, returned with many thanks — if, that is, I am not myself capable, though I think I shall be, of betaking myself between now and the
15th (inclusive) to the City, where I have other business to attend to.
Salut.
Your
K. M. First published in the notes in F. Mehring, The Freiligrath-Marx Correspondence, Moscow-Leningrad, 1929 (in Russian)
332. Marx to Engels. 25 July
332
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
Ramsgate, 25 July 1864 46 Hardres Street
Dear Frederick,
You will see from the address that I am spending a few days in Ramsgate.
It was a far from agreeable surprise to discover that my FURUNCLE was in fact an extremely malignant CARBUNCLE and, what is more, has had the impudence to erupt just above my penis. So, for ABOUT 10 days, I've been obliged to spend most of my time in bed — and in this heat, too! The thing is clearing up pretty quickly here; however, my confidence has completely evaporated now that the disease has unexpectedly cropped up again in such a malignant form.
Jenny and Tussy are here with me; Laura is coming the day after tomorrow and in ABOUT 8 or 10 days we shall go to Holland, during which time my wife will betake herself to the seaside.
Apropos. Don't forget to send the latter her chain, as she will need this for her watch when at the resort. She says all you have to do is put it in a little box and have it posted, so sending it off couldn't possibly put you to much trouble.
I hope you have now sorted things out with Ermen and are no longer being BOTHERED by LAWYERS.3
As for the Schleswig-Holstein affair, I'm not yet wholly convinced that it won't end in a personal union between the Duchies and Denmark. The jealousy between Prussia and Austria and that felt by both towards the German Confederation, as well as the quarrel between Augustenburgb and Russia's pretender, Oldenburg,' etc., mean that such a solution is still at least a possibility, even at this late hour. Incidentally, as far back as 1851, Palmerston put forward the Duke of Oldenburgd en passant and as a pis aller" as candidate for Schleswig-Holstein.
I shall write and tell Laura to send you The Free Press. Your philistine on the spree lords it here as do, to an even
333. Marx to Lion Philips. 17 August
greater extent, his better half and his female OFFSPRING. It is almost sad to see venerable Oceanus, that age-old Titan, having to suffer these pigmies to disport themselves on his phiz, and serve them for entertainment.
BEST COMPLIMENTS from Jenny and Tussy. Life at the seaside suits both of them admirably. Addio.
Moor-
333
MARX TO LION PHILIPS[239]
IN ZALT-BOMMEL
London, 17 August 1864
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill
Dear Uncle,
I found your letter waiting for me here when I came back from the British Museum yesterday evening. It was already too late for me to reply straight away. I need not tell you how alarmed I and all the family were by the contents of your letter.[623] One thing we failed to understand. Why didn't you leave the house instantly with Nettchena? I would advise you to do so even now. When the same thing happened in my family, I immediately sent the children away; and the giantessb can be nursed perfectly well without you. Why court danger unnecessarily? You will forgive me for interfering, but I feel too worried about you TO MINCE MATTERS. In fact, I am sorry that I am not with you in person, for this disease has no effect upon me, as I know from experience and, had you really insisted on not leaving the house (BUT WHY NOT?), I could have stood by you at this time of crisis, for in such crises two are better able than one, and three better able than two, TO KILL TIME AND ROUGH 17 1864
whole, things are going quite well here and all members of the family are reasonably fit.
Just now there's a political and social lull here. Everyone who can, makes off, either abroad or to seaside resorts in this country. T h e monotony is broken only by daily reports of terrible RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. Capital over here isn't as much subject to police supervision as on the Continent, and hence it's of no concern whatever to the RAILWAY DIRECTORS HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE KILLED DURING AN EXCURSION SEASON, IF ONLY THE BALANCE LOOKS TO THE COMFORTABLE SIDE. All attempts to make these RAILWAY kings responsible for their HOMICIDAL NEGLECT OF ALL PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES have hitherto come to grief as a result of the great influence exerted by the RAILWAY INTEREST in the HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Another source of distraction over here is the ANXIETY PREVAILING IN MERCANTILE CIRCLES BECAUSE OF THE RISE OF THE RATE OF DISCOUNT! I t is C e r t a i n that, if the present RATE OF DISCOUNT remains at its present high for a few more weeks, there will be a great CRASH among the myriads of SWINDLING JOINT STOCK COMPANIES, which have been springing u p like mushrooms this year. Already, here and there in the CITY a major bankruptcy heralds the approaching storm.
I recently had an opportunity of looking at a very important scientific work, Grove's Correlation of Physical Forces. H e demon-strates that mechanical motive force, heat, light, electricity, magnetism and CHEMICAL AFFINITY are all in effect simply modifica-tions of the same force, and mutually generate, replace, merge into each other, etc. With great skill he dismisses such odious metaphysical-physical phantasms as 'latent heat' (as good as 'invisible light'), electric 'fluid' and similar verbal pis aller* which come in handy as understudies in place of ideas.
I hope to have good tidings of you soon. So much am I taken u p with thoughts of you that I a m unable to compose myself sufficiently to read the important AMERICAN NEWS today.
The whole family send their warmest regards. Kindly remember me to Jettchen, the doctor, Fritz h et cie.
Your affectionate nephew
K. M.
334. Marx to Engels. 31 August
334
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 31 August 1864
DEAR Frederick,
I returned from Ramsgate(1) exactly three weeks ago today. The trip to Holland has fallen through, because a maid in my uncle'sb
household suddenly contracted smallpox.
Last week my wife had a severe attack of cholerine which did, for a spell, look like becoming dangerous. Yesterday she left for Brighton (solo).
I have sundry letters from Liebknecht here which, however, I shall not send as I don't know whether you are in Manchester. The enclosed scrawl by Colletc will amuse you, and, should you not be there, it doesn't really matter. What naïveté on C.'s part! Since (to use an Austrian construction) I had done a long article on the RUSSIAN CLAIMS for him, which he didn't print, he expects me to take an interest in his ridiculous rubbish.
The enclosed letter from Eisner is in reply to my wife's asking him for biographical notes on Lupus.d
I've been operative again for a couple of days. Before that I was still troubled with sickness and INCAPABLE. If you haven't left yet, let us know at once. We hope to see you on your way through at any rate. The children send you their love. Jenny can hardly wait to show you her GREENHOUSE.
I haven't yet quite made up my mind about the Schleswig-Holstein affair, and more facts will be needed before a clear picture can be gained of it. You were right when you predicted the rebirth of the Holy Alliance.e Bonaparte would seem to have a strong 'inclination AT LEAST' to make 'a fourth in the alliance'.f Since the outbreak of the Polish revolution to date, the utter despicability of the fellow has Manifested itself in the clearest and most genuine light.[624]
335. Engels to Marx. 2 September
I've had an opportunity of looking at Grove's Correlation of Physical Fqrces. He is beyond doubt the most philosophical of the English (and indeed German!) natural scientists. Our friend Schleiden has an inborn- proclivity for fadaise,(1) although he, by mistake, discovered the cell.
Herewith) Pieper's card.[625] It accidentally fell into Liebknecht's hands and he has returned it to me.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Be so good as to send me Ernest Jones's Manchester address.
DON'T FORGET!
335
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 2 September 1864
Dear Moor,
I had assumed from your last letterc that you'd be in the depths of the Dutch fens, hence my pertinacious silence. I couldn't find your address in Holland. I sent your wife the watch and chain on 6 August, in a box, by registered mail, and trust it arrived safely.
I intend to travel from Hull to Hamburg next Thursday, the 8th, or Saturday, the 10th September, in order to take a look at OUR NEW PROPERTY in Schleswig and Holstein and shall, provided there are no passport difficulties, also go from Lübeck to Copenhagen. I shall not be returning before the end of September and, if at all feasible, shall spend a day in London on the way back.
The PARTNERSHIP business has at last been settled, and the contracts signed,[1] so I hope to have 5 years' peace from that direction.
We have left our house in Tennant Street[626] and have been living for the past fortnight about 500 paces further along, in a somewhat larger house with 2 living-rooms downstairs; thus we have bettered ourselves after much the same fashion as you did by your last removal. The address is 86 Mornington Street, Stockport Road, Manchester. Letters to be addressed to me by name as before.
Jones's address is 52 Cross Street, Manchester. The Danes still believe, or rather fear, that a personal union will be established and, since editors Bille, of the Dagbladet, and Ploug, of the Faedrelandet, are both deputies and undoubtedly have good sources, and, since the present ministers are also good Russians, I feel convinced that powerful intrigues towards that end are being conducted by Russia. However, Monsieur Bismarck certainly has other things in view and, if he is to gain positive advantages, i.e. if he is to mediatise Schleswig-Holstein,[027] I think he will need the Augustenburg chap[3] pretty badly. This much is certain, never has Prussian dynastic policy involving the partition of Germany along the Main been so insolently advocated, and as for the rotten liberal gang, they seem to be taking quite kindly to it. Should this be the case — and I shall find out easily enough in Germany — the Prussian bourgeoisie will be giving us a tremendous lever for the next SET-TO. I am sure by the way that Eisner is right, at least about the old provinces[628] being intolerably flushed with victory. Indeed, I shall take care not to go there. It will be bad enough even on the Rhine.
To the worthy Gottfried's[1]' intense alarm, I told him about Monsieur Bonaparte's ardent desire to join the Holy Alliance0 on the very day the matter became known. The fellow's bound to come to a bad end. To ruminate perpetually about 'business' is very aging, as I can see from Gottfried, who has much the same attitude to trade as B. has to politics, and whose train of thought is also similar. As the years go by, one dreams of retirement and, if it's not feasible, one's health suffers. N'est pas Palmerston qui veut.[6]'[29]
Ce cher[1]' Bonaparte is, I should say, very much ON THE DECLINE. SO much the better; once he starts to flag, he'll soon be done for.
Best wishes to the girls. But why didn't you drop me a couple of lines to say you were not going to Holland and that your wife was ill? Your
F. E. First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen Printed according to the original F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, jgj3 ' Published in English for the first time a Friedrich of Augustenburg - h Gottfried Ermen - r See this volume, p. 552. -d That dear
336. Marx to Engels. 2 September
336
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 2 September 1864
Dear Frederick,
Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from Freiligrath, of which copy below; from it you will see that Lassalle has been gravely wounded in a duel in Geneva. I went to see Freiligr. that same evening. However, he had not received any more telegrams. Incidentally, he told me—entre nous"—that his bank was in a state of crisis, aggravated by the affair in Geneva and the role Fazy had played in the same.[630]
Salut.
Your
K. M.(1)
Dear Marx,
'I have just had a letter from Klapka in Geneva, containing the sad news that, on 30 August, Lassalle fought a duel in Geneva with a Wallachian pseudo-princeb and was mortally wounded. Herewith the details from K.'s letter....
'"Lassalle had been conducting a love-affair here, though with perfectly honourable intentions as he wished to marry the girl,c the daughter of the Bavarian envoy, von Dönniges. The father objected to the marriage, the girl deceived poor Lassalle; a man to whom she had been previously engaged, the above-mentioned pseudo-prince, arrived from Berlin; then came explanations, an unpleasant exchange of letters, and a challenge ensued. Lassalle's seconds were Colonel Riistow and my fellow countryman, General Count Bethlen. Lassalle, as befitted a man of his reputation and political position, behaved with no less courage than dignity. He was shot in the stomach and is now laid up at the Hôtel Victoria with his life hanging in the balance. Unfortunately for him, the bullet is lodged deep in the body, so the wound might well become gangrenous. I went to see him at once upon my arrival and iounc. him dictating his will, but otherwise calm and resigned to death. I am exceeding"; sorry for him; often one does not get to know a person until his end is neai ,u tern.;.
337. Marx to Jenny Marx. 2September
Let us hope that, despite the doctors' unfavourable prognoses, he will come safely through the crisis."
'So much for Klapkâ.'
337
MARX TO JENNY MARX[239]
IN BRIGHTON
[London,] 2 September 1864
Dear Jenny,
Yesterday I got a letter from Freiligrath — copy below — from which you will see that Lassalle has been gravely wounded in a duel in Geneva. We were genuinely dismayed by the news since, whatever one may say, L. is too good to go under in this way. After receiving the letter, I went to see Freiligrath, i.e. at his private address, knowing that Ida" was away. He seemed very 'agreeably' surprised by my visit. His daughter Louise was with him. The rest of the crew are coming back at the end of this week. Louise had been staying in Brighton for a fortnight with Franziska Rüge. Bearing in mind the Freilig.-Ruge, etc., connection, you should take care with your baroness's cards.(1) Ruge would be just the fellow to turn something like that to account.
Freilig. was by no means as 'moved' as he made out in his letter, but cracked his little jokes as always, even on the subject of L. He told me that his bank was in a state of crisis and that the Geneva affair in particular and the role played therein by Fazy were doing it a great deal of harm.[630] Finally, here is Tussy's LAST. It being plain from F.'s letter that L. had fought a duel on account of a ladyb he wished to marry, Laura recalled how he told every woman he could 'only love her for 6 weeks'. So, says Tussy, 'HE IS WARRANTED FOR
c WEEKS'.
2 1864
Little Jenny is working like mad in her GREENHOUSE. All are well and send their love.
THE OLD ONE
F.'s letter[3]
'I have just had a letter from Klapka in Geneva. He writes: '"Lassalle had been conducting a love-affair here, though with perfectly honourable intentions as he wished to marry the girl, the daughter of the Bavarian envoy, Mr von Dönniges. The father objected to the marriage, the girl deceived poor Lassalle; a man to whom she had been previously engaged, the above-mentioned pseudo-prince,h arrived from Berlin; then came explanations, an upleasant exchange of letters, and a challenge ensued. Lassalle's seconds were Colonel Rüstow and my fellow countryman, General Count Bethlen. Lassalle, as befitted a man of his reputation and political position, behaved with no less courage than dignity. He was shot in the stomach and is now laid up at the Hôtel Victoria with his life hanging in the balance. Unfortunately for him, the bullet is lodged deep in the body, so the wound might well become gangrenous. I went to see him at once upon my arrival and found him dictating his will, but otherwise calm and resigned to death. I am exceedingly sorry for him; often one does not get to know a person until his end is near at hand. Let us hope that, despite the doctors' unfavourable prognoses, he will come safely through the crisis."
'So much for Klapka. I cannot but confess' (what an affected way of putting it — as though he was on the rack!) 'that I was deeply affected by the news and immediately telegraphed Klapka, asking him to convey my sympathy and grief to Lassalle, if he should still be alive. Klapka will reply by telegraph and I shall immediately pass on to you anything I learn.'
338. Engels to Marx. 4 September
338
ENGELS TO MARX[369]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 4 September 1864 86 Mornington Street, Stockport Road
Dear Moor,
Your telegram[631] arrived yesterday even before I had opened your letter, my attention having first been claimed by all kinds of business. You can imagine how surprised I was by the news. Whatever Lassalle may have been in other respects as a person, writer, scholar — he was, as a politician, undoubtedly one of the most significant men in Germany. For us he was a very uncertain friend now and would, in future, most certainly have been our enemy; but nevertheless, it's very galling to see how Germany destroys all those in the extreme party who are in any way worth their salt. What jubilation there will be amongst the manufacturers and amongst the Progress swine, for L. was indeed the only man actually inside Germany of whom they were afraid.
But what an extraordinary way to lose one's life: To go and fall seriously in love with a Bavarian envoy's daughter"—this WOULD-BE Don Juan—, ask for her hand, clash with an ex-rival,b not to say Wallachian swindler, and get himself shot dead by the same. Such a thing could only happen to L., with his strange and altogether unique mixture of frivolity and sentimentality, Jewishness and chivalresquerie. How could a political man like him exchange shots with a Wallachian adventurer?
You can see with what speed the news travelled from the fact that his death had already been announced on Thursday evening in the Kölnische Zeitung, which arrived here at midday yesterday0— 2 hours after your telegram.
What do you think of things in America? Lee is making masterly use of his fortified camp at Richmond, and small wonder, this being already the third campaign to revolve around it.[632] He is pinning down Grant's massive force with comparatively few men and is employing the better part of his own troops for offensive action in West Virginia and as a threat to Washington and Pennsylvania. A first-class object-lesson for the Prussians, who could learn from it down to the last detail how to conduct a campaign centred upon the fortified camp of Coblenz, but who are, of course, far too arrogant to learn anything from these improvised generals. Grant — discharged from the army for drunkenness 6 years ago when a lieutenant, subsequently a bibulous engineer in St. Louis — has much UNITY OF PURPOSE and considerable contempt for the lives of his cannon-fodder; he would also seem to be very resourceful as a small-scale strategist (i.e. day-to-day operations), but I look in vain for any signs that he has enough breadth of vision to be able to survey the campaign as a whole. It seems to me that the campaign against Richmond is on the point of collapse; the impatience with which G. is attacking now in one place now in another, but nowhere proceeding methodically with saps and mines is a bad sign. Altogether, so far as the Yankees are concerned, the engineering branch would seem to be in a poor state; for this calls, not only for theoretical knowledge, but also for a tradition of practice which cannot be readily improvised.
Whether Sherman will cope with Atlanta seems doubtful, but his chances are, I think, rather better.[633] Skirmishing by guerrillas and cavalry to his rear are unlikely to do him much harm. The fall of Atlanta would be a hard blow for the South, Rome would fall at the same time and that's where their gun foundries, etc., are; in addition, the railway connection between Atlanta and South Carolina would be lost.
Farragut is the same as always. The fellow knows what he's about. But whether Mobile itself will fall is very doubtful. The town is very strongly fortified and can, so far as I know, only be taken from the landward side, since vessels of deep draught can't approach near enough. But how stupid to split up the attacking forces on the coast, where Charleston and Mobile are being attacked simultaneously instead of one after the other, but each time with all available forces.
I don't set much store by the peace-talk that is now so prevalent. Not even by the negotiations allegedly conducted direct by Lincoln. All this I regard as an electioneering ploy. As things now stand, I should say that Lincoln's re-election is fairly certain.[634]
My mother is at Ostende and will be going home again on Saturday," as a result of which news I have changed my travelling arrangements'b and shall be leaving for Ostende on Thursday
339. Marx to Engels. 7 September
evening. I'm afraid I shall only be able to catch the night train to London which gets in before 6 a.m. But, if I can manage it, I shall take the 4.15, thus getting to Euston station at 9.15, when I shall either go straight on to Dover (s'il y a moyen"), or spend the night at the hotel at London Bridge Station. If the latter, I shall write to you beforehand, in which case we might be able to meet.[635]
Meanwhile, write and tell me what you think about America. Best wishes to the GIRLS.
Your
F. E.
339
MARX TO ENGELS[369]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 7 September 1864
DEAR FREDERICK,
During the past few days my thoughts have been damnably preoccupied with Lassalle's misfortune. After all, whatever else he may have been, he was one of the vieille soucheh and the foe of our foes. And then the thing came so unexpectedly that it's hard to believe so noisy, STIRRING, PUSHING a person is now dead as a door-nail and compelled to hold his tongue ALTOGETHER. AS regards the cause of his death, you are perfectly right.c It is one of the many indiscretions he committed in the course of his life. WITH ALL THAT, I am sorry that our relationship should have been clouded in recent years, though the fault lay with him. On the other hand, I am very glad that I resisted every incitement from whatever quarter and never attacked him during his 'year of triumph'.[636]
Heaven knows, our ranks are being steadily depleted, and there are no reinforcements in sight. I'm convinced, by the by, that this catastrophe would never have happened had L. not consorted with MILITARY ADVENTURERS and révolutionnaires en gants jaunesd in Switzerland. But he was fatalement drawn again and again to this Coblenz of European revolution.[637]
The 'Bavarian envoy's daughter'(1) is none other than the daughter of Dönniges of Berlin, a fellow university demagogue[638]
of Rutenberg and co.'s, originally one of that little weed Ranke's jeunesb GENTS — or rather, since they were no GENTLEMEN, jeunes gensc—whom he got to edit beastly old German imperial annals,d
etc. What that capering little troll Ranke regarded as wit — playful anecdotalism and the attribution of all great events to mean and petty origins — was strictly forbidden these YOUNG MEN FROM THE COUNTRY. They were supposed to stick to what was 'objective' and leave wit to their master 1 Our friend Dönniges was regarded as something of a rebel, since he contested Ranke's monopoly of wit, in deed if not word, and showed ad oculose in various ways that he, no less than Ranke, was a born 'valet' of 'history'.[639]
Well, I wonder what will become of the organisation built up by L.[640] Herwegh, that platonic friend of 'labour' and practical friend of the 'Muses', isn't the right man. In general, none of its lesser leaders are anything but RUBBISH. According to what Liebknecht writes, the Schulze-Delitzsch Association in Berlin[641] can now boast no more than 40 MEMBERS. HOW things stand over there is clear from the fact that our Wilhelm Liebkn. is A CONSEQUENTIAL POLITICAL PERSONAGE. Should L.'s death lead fellows like Schulze, etc., to make insolent remarks about the deceased, we can only hope that L.'s official supporters conduct themselves in such a way as to enable us to enter the lists IF NECESSARY. I must now find out who has his correspondence. I shall at once obtain an INJUNCTION — for already the mob of memoir vultures such as Ludmilla,' etc., are circling round these literary remains — prohibiting the publication of a single line of mine or yours. If necessary, this can be legally enforced in Prussia.
So far as America is concerned, I consider the present moment, entre nous,f to be extremely critical. If Grant suffers a major defeat, or Sherman wins a major victory, so ALL RIGHT. Just now, at election time, a chronic series of small CHECKS would be dangerous. I fully agree with you that, to date, Lincoln's re-election is pretty well assured, still 100 to l.h But election time in a country which is 7 1864
the archetype of democratic humbug is full of hazards that may quite unexpectedly defy the logic of events (an expression which Magnus Urquhartus considers no less idiotic than 'THE JUSTICE OF A LOCOMOTIVE'). An armistice would seem to be quite essential to the South, if it is to be saved from complete prostration. It was the first to raise this CRY, not only in its northern organs, but actually in those of Richmond, although, now that the said cry has evoked an echo in New York, the Richmond Examiner is scornfully tossing it back to the Yankees.[312] It is altogether symptomatic that Mr Davis should have decided to treat Negro soldiers as 'prisoners of war'—the last official order of his war secretary.(2)
Lincoln has at his disposal considerable means for achieving election. (Needless to say, the peace proposals made by him are MERE HUMBUG.) The election of an opposition candidate would probably lead to a genuine revolution. Nevertheless, there is no mistaking the fact that during the next 8 weeks, in the course of which the matter will be decided pro tern, much will depend on military eventualities. This is undoubtedly the most critical moment since the beginning of the war. Once this has been SHIFTED, OLD LINCOLN CAN BLUNDER ON to his heart's content. The old man, by the by, cannot possibly 'create' generals. He'd be better able to select ministers. Yet the CONFEDERATE PAPERS attack their ministers just as the Yankees do those in Washington. Should Lincoln succeed this time — as is highly probable — it will be on a far more radical PLATFORM and in completely CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES. Then the old man will, lawyer-fashion, find that more radical methods are compatible with his conscience.
I hope to see you tomorrow! Regards to Madame Liz.b
Herewith a photograph of Laura. I am hourly awaiting that of Jenny, but it has not, alas, arrived yet. Salut OLD BOY.
Your
K. M.
340. Marx to Sophie von Hatzfeldt. 12 September
340
MARX TO SOPHIE VON HATZFELDT[239]
IN BERLIN
London, 12 September 1864
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill
My Dear Countess,
You will realise how surprised, dismayed and shocked I was by the utterly unexpected news of Lassalle's death. He was one of the people by whom I set great store. For me it is all the more distressing in that of late we had no longer been in touch. The reason for this was neither his silence alone — for it was he who was the instigator, not I — nor my own illness, which lasted over a year and of which I only rid myself a few days ago. There were also reasons which I could tell you by word of mouth but not in writing. Let me assure you that no one can feel greater sorrow over Lassalle's untimely end than I. And, above all else, I feel for you. I know how much the deceased meant to you and what his loss must mean. One thing you can be glad of. He died young, at a time of triumph, as an Achilles.
I hope, my dear Countess, that your proud and courageous spirit will enable you to withstand this blow fate has dealt you, and that you will never doubt the wholly loyal devotion of
Your sincere friend,
Karl Marx
APPENDICES
1
Endnotes
[524] Plonplonism—from Plon-Plon, nickname of Napoleon Ill's cousin, Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, who led a Bonapartist faction that sought to distract the masses from struggle against the existing regime by means of large-scale social demagoguery and ostensible opposition to the policy of Napoleon III. Plon-Plon took an equally demagogic stand on the national liberation struggle of the Hungarian, Italian and Polish peoples and acted, in effect, as a vehicle of Napoleon Ill's foreign policy, recruiting supporters for it among bourgeois and petty-bourgeois democratic émigrés.—466, 505
[567] On Kossuth's ties with Plon-Plon see Marx's Herr Vogt (present edition, Vol. 17).—505
[568] Two motions — one on the occupation of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and another on the so-called execution — were tabled at the German Federal Diet on 7 December 1863 following the promulgation of the new Danish Constitution (see Note 557). The latter motion was proposed by Prussia and Austria, who wanted no open violation of the 1852 London Protocol (see Note 380). Under pressure from Austria and Prussia, their proposal was adopted, and by 31 December Saxon and Hanover troops had occupied the whole of Holstein, meeting with no resistance from the Danes. Friedrich of Augustenburg was proclaimed Duke of Schleswig and Holstein under the name of Frederick VIII (see Note 558).—506
[569] Q n j g December 1863 the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, in an address to King William I, refused to allocate the emergency funds for the forthcoming war against Denmark. In his reply of 27 December William rejected the address. Engels probably knew the text of the reply from The Times, where it was published on 2 January 1864.— 506 26 — 558
[561] 5t>1 Marx left for Trier on 7 December 1863. From there he went to see his relatives in Frankfurt am Main and then travelled on to Zalt-Bommel to stay with Lion Philips, his mother's executor (see this volume, pp. 500-01). Marx was taken ill in Zalt-Bommel and did not return to London until 19 February 1864.—498, 511
[24] 14 The German National Association (Deutscher National-Verein) was the party of the German liberal bourgeoisie favouring the unification of Germany (without Austria) under the aegis of the King of Prussia. The Association was set up in Frankfurt am Main in September 1859. Its supporters were nicknamed Little Germans.—10, 160, 164, 192, 200, 319, 342, 383, 393, 511, 580
[574] ,74 First published in English in: Marx on Revolution, Tr. by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1971.—512
[575] 75 The Mormons are members of a religious sect founded in the United States in 1830 by Joseph Smith (1805-1844). The Book of Mormon which he wrote in 1830, allegedly on the basis of divine revelation, tells, in the name of the prophet Mormon, of the migration of Israelite tribes into America, which is claimed to have taken place in antiquity.— 512
[9] On 26 November 1859, the Allgemeine Militär-Zeitung (No. 95-96) carried a review of Engels' anonymously published pamphlet Po and Rhine. It endorsed Engels' critique of the theory that Germany's security depended on German domination of Northern Italy.—4
[580] Q n 29 February 1864 Austria introduced a state of siege in Galicia, thus preventing any help to the Polish insurgents.— 513
[581] According to Epicurus, there is an endless multitude of worlds whose origin and existence is governed by their own natural laws. Gods exist too, but outside those worlds, in the spaces between them, and exert no influence whatever on the evolution of the universe or on human life.—515
[582] "rhe British government hoped to exploit Garibaldi's visit to England in April 1864 (see Note 579) to bring pressure to bear on Austria. It also had to take into account the enthusiastic welcome given to Italy's national hero by the public at large. Official honours were therefore bestowed on him at the beginning of his visit. However, the British bourgeoisie were angered by Garibaldi's meeting with Mazzini, who lived in London as a political émigré, and by his speeches in support of the Polish insurgents. A campaign against the Italian revolutionary was launched in the press. In connection with a request by Napoleon III for Garibaldi's immediate expulsion from Britain, the House of Commons discussed his health and a number of bourgeois newspapers hastened to announce that he 'was ill and leaving for Caprera'. Garibaldi denied this fabrication, declaring that he intended to visit several English cities. The result was an open statement by Gladstone to the effect that Garibaldi's further stay in Britain was undesirable. Soon after that, at the end of April, Garibaldi left the country.— 516
[583] 58:i Meetings in honour of Garibaldi were held at the Crystal Palace (see Note 246) on 16 and 18 April.— 516
[584] In 1844 letters from the Bandiera brothers to Mazzini containing the plan for their expedition to Calabria were opened by order of Sir James Graham, the British Home Secretary. The members of the expedition were arrested. The Bandieras were executed.— 516
[585] The National Shakespeare Committee was formed in England in 1863 to organise the celebration of the tricentennial.of Shakespeare's birth on 23 April 1864. Blind's admission to the Committee was announced in the Athenaeum, No. 1902, 9 April 1864.—517
[86] 8(' As can be seen from Duncker's letter to Engels of 27 February 1860, he disagreed with Engels in assessing the stand taken by the various German political parties on the Italian question and therefore insisted on Savoy, Nice and the Rhine being published under the author's name. Engels, for his part, wanted a mere statement that the pamphlet was by the author of Po and Rhine (see this volume, p. 25 and Note 68).—50
[297] This refers to the Parliamentary debate in March 1861 on Alexander Dunlop's proposal for setting up a commission of inquiry into the falsification of diplomatic documents in 1839 by the British Foreign Office, then headed by Palmerston. In 1839 the British Parliament issued a Blue Book on Persia and Afghanistan (Correspondence relating to Persia and Afghanistan) containing, among other documents, a number of letters by A. Burnes, the British representative in Kabul, on the Anglo-Afghan war (1838-42). The letters had been selected and presented by the Foreign Office in such a way as to conceal Britain's provocative role in unleashing the war. Shortly before his death Burnes sent duplicates of his letters to London. Those not included in the Blue Book were published by his family (A. Burnes, Cabool, Being a Personal Narrative of a Journey to and Residence in That City, in the Years 1836, 7 and 8..., London, 1842; J. Burnes, Notes on His Name and Family (Including a Memoir of Sir Alexander Burnes), Edinburgh, 1851). On 19 March 1861 Palmerston, speaking in the House of Commons, refused to discuss the matter as too far back in time and irrelevant. See Marx's article 'The London Times and Lord Palmerston' (present edition, Vol. 19).—286, 517
[387] On 7 March Engels wrote the first part of the article requested by Marx, and on 18 March probably the second part (see p. 351). However, the Tribune did not publish this article. Engels made use of the first part for his article 'The War in America' (see present edition, Vol. 18) published in The Volunteer Journal, for Lancashire and Cheshire on 14 March 1862. Marx translated the text intended for the Tribune into German, added more recent data and sent the text to Die Presse, which published it on 26 and 27 March 1862 (see 'The American Civil War', present edition, Vol. 19).— 345, 346
[573] ,73 On 12 March 1864 Marx came to stay with Engels in Manchester for a few days to tell him about his trip to Germany and Holland (see Note 561).— 511, 518
[588] Peelers was a nickname for members of the Irish constabulary, founded in 1812-18 by Sir Robert Peel; also, by extension, a nickname for the police in England.—518
[589] A decree issued on 1 June 1863 imposed severe restrictions on the press in Prussia. In late April 1864 King William I visited the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein with a view to inducing their population to vote for a merger with Prussia in the forthcoming plebiscite which was to decide their status.—519
[590] An allusion to France's annexation of Savoy and Nice under a treaty she concluded with the Kingdom of Sardinia in Turin in 1860. In keeping with that treaty, plebiscites were held in Savoy and Nice in April to create the illusion of a voluntary merger.—519
[591] The Danish stronghold of Düppel (Dybböl) in Schleswig was stormed and captured by Prussian troops on 18 April 1864, in the course of the war that Prussia and Austria were waging against Denmark (see Note 572).—519
[592] Engels means the defence of Sebastopol in the Crimean war of 1853-56.—519
[593] Marx went to Manchester to see the sick Wilhelm Wolff on 3 May and stayed there until 19 May 1864.—520
[429] T h e Schiller Institute was set u p in Manchester in November 1859 in connection with the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's birth. Its founders intended it as a cultural and social centre for Manchester's G e r m a n community. Initially, Engels took almost no part in the Institute's activities, but in January 1864 he became a member of its Directorate, and eventually its chairman.—374, 524
[594] The Friends of Light was a religious trend that opposed the Junker-backed arch-reactionary hypocritical pietism predominant in the official church. It was an expression of the bourgeoisie's dissatisfaction with the reactionary order in Germany in the 1840s.—525
[595] Engels arrived in London on 19 May and stayed with Marx for four days.— 526
[596] Marx means the formalities involved in the transfer of the inheritance left to him by Wilhelm Wolff.—527
[598] Some time earlier, Harney had been invited by friends to settle in Australia, which probably gave rise to rumours that he had gone there. In fact, he did not follow up the invitation, emigrating with his wife and son to America in May 1863.—527
[599] This letter has not been found. It may have contained an account of Frederick Engels' dealings with Gottfried Ermen and financial transactions with Hermann Engels.—528
[600] This refers to the obituary of Wilhelm Wolff, published in the Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 144 (supplement), 23 May 1864, and other German newspapers over the signatures of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Ernst Dronke, Louis Borchardt and Eduard Gumpert (see present edition, Vol. 19).—529
[547] In late July or in August 1863 a new stage began in Marx's work on Capital, when he rewrote the 1861-63 manuscript (see Note 310) producing, by the beginning of 1866, a third rough draft of the theoretical part of Capital (three books). In the present letter Marx writes about his work on Book I.—488, 530
[604] This refers to the power of attorney issued to Engels by Marx to take over the property bequeathed to him by Wilhelm Wolff (see present edition, Vol. 19, Appendices).— 531
[602] In May 1864 the Union forces commanded by Grant launched their third offensive on Richmond. It was not until 3 April 1865 that the city was taken (see also Note 632).—530, 531
[606] An ironic reference to the fact that, prior to the resumption (28 May 1864) of the London conference of European powers on the Schleswig-Holstein problem (see Note 577), Prussia and Austria had agreed on the candidature of Prince of Augustenburg as duke for Schleswig-Holstein (see Note 558), the Prince having promised in return a number of concessions to Prussia. However, his negotiations in Berlin with William I, Crown Prince Frederick William and Bismarck produced no results. The London conference, too, failed to reach agreement.— 531
[13] '•^ In his letter of 16 December 1859 (it has not been found) Marx probably asked Szemere to help him out of his financial difficulties. In his reply of 29 December Szemere informed Marx that his efforts had been to no avail.— 5
[608] In May 1864 Lassalle toured Germany in connection with the festivities to mark the first anniversary of the General Association of German Workers (see Note 536). In a speech he made in Elberfeld he called Wilhelm Wolff an 'outstanding fighter for the cause of the working class'.— 533
[63] 03 This refers to the Communist League, the first German and international communist organisation of the proletariat, formed under the leadership of Marx and Engels in London early in June 1847 as a result of the reorganisation of the League of the Just. The programme and organisational principles of the Communist League were drawn up with the direct participation of Marx and Engels. League members took an active part in the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Germany in 1848-49. After the defeat of the revolution, the League was reorganised and continued its activities. In the summer of 1850, differences arose between the supporters of Marx and Engels and the sectarian Willich-Schapper group, which tried to impose its adventurist tactics of immediately unleashing a revolution regardless of the existing conditions and practical possibilities. The discord led to a split within the League in September 1850. Because of police persecution and arrests of League members, the activities of the League as an organisation virtually ceased in Germany in May 1851. On 17 November 1852, on a motion by Marx, the League's London District announced the dissolution of the League (see this volume, pp. 72, 82-84).—25, 44, 73, 78, 81, 92, 135
[609] In a letter to Friedrich Moll and Julius Melchior of 27 May 1864, Karl Klings describes the celebration in Germany of the first anniversary of the General Association of German Workers (see Note 536), stressing, in particular, lhal working-class audiences enthusiastically reacted to speakers' references to Marx and F^ngels. Klings requested Moll and Melchior to tell Marx that the workers wished to 'be worthy of such champions of their cause' as Marx and Engels.— 533
[131] The German Workers' Society in Brussels was founded by Marx and Engels at the end of August 1847 for the political education of German workers living in Belgium. Run by Marx, Engels and their associates, it provided a legal centre for the propagation of scientific socialism and a rallying point for the revolutionary proletariat in Belgium. The finest members of the Society joined the Brussels community of the Communist League. The Society played an important part in establishing the Brussels Democratic Association. The Society's activities ceased soon after the February 1848 bourgeois revolution in France, when many of its members were arrested and expelled by the Belgian authorities.—102. 534
[601] Marx means the books bequeathed to him by Wilhelm Wolff.—530, 534
[611] Marx paraphrases the dictum 'They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing', which won currency during the restoration of the Bourbons (1815-30). Attributed to Charles Talleyrand, but in fact coined by Rear Admiral Chevalier de Panât in a letter to the journalist Mallet du Pan in 1796, it referred to royalists who failed to draw any lessons from the French Revolution.—535
[612] The Probate Court (Court of Probate) existed in England from 1857 to 1873. Its function was to prove wills and issue titles to the management of property.—
[613] 3 An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in: Marx and Engels, The Civil War in the United States, New York, 1937.—536
[614] 4 In his letter of 3 June 1864 Liebknecht described the position in the General Association of German Workers, notably the growing opposition within its ranks to Lassalle's dictatorial leanings. He wrote that he had refused to work for the newspaper Lassalle intended to start, because Marx and other 'veteran party comrades' had not been invited to contribute. He also gave an account of his moves in support of Marx and asked for advice on how best to counteract Lassalle's policies within the Association. Marx's reply has not been found.—
[615] 15 An ironic allusion to Frederick William IV, during whose reign, in 1852, the London Protocol, unfavourable to Prussia, was signed (see Note 380).—537
[616] 16 In May 1864, Russian troops captured the Kbaada area (now Krasnaya Polyana), the Caucasian mountaineers' last resistance centre. This marked the end of the Caucasian wars started by the Tsarist government in the late eighteenth century and the final incorporation of the Caucasus into Russia.—
[572] .72 x h e entry of Austro-Prussian troops into Schleswig on 1 February 1864 opened the Danish war, which marked an important stage in the struggle to unify Germany under Prussia's aegis. The purpose of the war was to sever Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. Under the Vienna treaty of 30 October 1864, the two duchies were declared co-possessions of Austria and Prussia. After the 1866 Austro-Prussian war they were annexed to Prussia.—509, 538
[617] 17 Preparing to write a detailed biography of Wilhelm Wolff, Marx in June 1864 drew up a brief list of dates on the subject (see his 'Biographical Notes on Wilhelm Wolff, present edition, Vol. 19). However, the project failed to materialise. In 1876, Engels carried it out in his series of articles, 'Wilhelm Wolff, published in the journal Neue Welt (see present edition, Vol. 24).—539
[618] 18 The battle in the Wilderness, Virginia, 5 to 7 May 1864, opened the Union troops' last, third campaign to seize the Confederate capital, Richmond (sec Note 632).—540
[619] 9 Russia put forward Peter Nicholaus Friedrich, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, as pretender to the Schleswig-Holstein throne. Marx is alluding to the fact that the Romanov dynasty was related to the Oldenburg house through Peter III (see Note 380). From the second half of the eighteenth century many of the Oldenburg princes lived in Russia.—541
[620] 0 Marx probably means the publication Le Traité de Londres, Copenhagen, 1863, and the tendentious commentaries to it in The Free Press (in particular, the leading article 'The Treaty of London' in No. 1, 6 January 1864).—543
[621] 1 In connection with Marx's work on the biography of Wilhelm Wolff (see Note 617) Marx's wife had written, on his behalf, to the journalist K. F. M. Eisner requesting him to send whatever information he had on Wolffs youth (see this volume, p. 589). Eisner failed to do so.—545, 588, 589
[270] After the death of Engels' father in March 186U, his brothers proposed that he should renounce his title to the family concern in Engelskirchen in their favour. One of their arguments was that he had lived abroad since 1849. By way of compensation, he was to receive £10,000 to consolidate his legal and financial standing with the Ermen & Engels firm in Manchester, of which Engels hoped eventually to become a co-owner. His brothers' proposal infringed Engels' rights, since under English law the transfer of a deceased co-owner's title was highly complicated and problematic. Engels had lengthy talks with Gottfried Ermen on the terms of his continued collaboration with the firm (see this volume, pp. 134-35). It was not until 25 September 1862 that a contract was signed providing for Engels' eventual partnership. He became a co-owner in 1864 (see this volume, p. 548).—259, 548
[622] 2 In the letter in question, Brass requested Biscamp to contribute to the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, which he was publishing in Berlin.—548
[623] 3 The letter contained the news that a maid in Lion Philips' house had contracted smallpox. As a result, Marx cancelled his intended visit to Zalt-Bommel with his daughters.—550
[624] 4 In speaking of the rebirth of the Holy Alliance, Marx means the meeting of King William I of Prussia with Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria in Carlsbad in June 1864, and with Emperor Alexander II of Russia in Potsdam and Bad Kissingen in July (business talks were carried on by Bismarck, Gorchakov and Rechberg). Worried by the Prusso-Austro-Russian rapprochement and Prussia's stepped-up military activity in Denmark, the British government proposed that Britain and France take joint action against Prussian aggression. However, Napoleon III refused because of France's grave internal position and foreign-policy setbacks.—552
[625] This refers to the card announcing Pieper's engagement to Ida Gravenhorst.—
[626] fi2fi After the death of Mary Burns, Engels moved from 252 Hyde Road to 4 Tennant Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock where he lived in 1863-64.—553
[27] The Foreign Affairs Committees were public organisations run by the Urquhart and his supporters in a number of English cities between 1840s and 1860s, mainly with the aim of opposing Palmerston's policies.—10, 95
[628] >28 -\Yie provinces—Brandenburg, East Prussia, West Prussia, Posen, old Pomerania and Silesia, i.e. the provinces that constituted the Kingdom of Prussia before the Congress of Vienna (1815). The Rhine Province was annexed lo Prussia in 1815.— 554
[6] An ironic reference to Gottfried Kinkel, who had named the weekly he was publishing in London Hermann after Arminius (Hermann), chieftain of the old German tribe of Gheruscans.—4
[29] On 12 January 1860, Hermann Orges, editor of the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, published a statement in that paper refuting the fabrications about him in Vogt's pamphlet Mein Prozess gegen die Allgemeine Zeitung (see also Engels' letter to Marx of 31 January 1860 in this volume).—10
[631] This telegram has not been found. Presumably, it contained the news of Lassalle's death.—558
[632] Richmond, the capital of the Southern Confederacy, was the rebels' main stronghold, protected by their elite troops. In the course of the Civil War, the Northerners fought three major campaigns to seize it. The first ended in their defeat at Bull Run on 21 July 1861 (see Note 390). In the second — spring and summer 1862 — they were repulsed and had to retreat to Washington (see Note 458). The third, launched in May 1864 and crowned by the capture of Richmond on 3 April 1865 (see Note 618), was crucial in securing the Union's victory in the war.—558
[633] In May 1864 the Union command embarked on a new plan for crushing the Confederacy, which in many respects coincided with the strategic propositions put forward by Marx and Engels in the article 'The American Civil War' as early as March 1862 (see present edition, Vol. 19). Simultaneously with Grant's offensive on the Central Front in Virginia (see Note 602) General Sherman launched, on 7 May 1864, his famous 'march to the sea'. Fighting his way through Georgia at the cost of heavy losses, he seized Atlanta on 2 September and reached the sea on 10 December. By cutting the Confederate territory in two, Sherman's march provided the conditions for the rout of the main Confederate forces in Virginia in the spring of 1865.—559
[634] On 8 November 1864, Presidential and Congressional elections were to be held in the United States. The National Convention of the Republican Party in Baltimore adopted, on 7 June 1864, a campaign programme calling for the abolition of slavery throughout the territory of the Union, and renominated Abraham Lincoln as candidate for the Presidency.—559 After briefly meeting Marx in London on 8 September 1864 and visiting his
[635] mother in Ostende, Engels travelled in Schleswig-Holstein until mid-October.—
[636] Marx means the year-long period of Lassalle's large-scale propaganda activities that followed the establishment of the General Association of German Workers in May 1863 (see Note 536) and his election to its presidency.—560
[637] The city of Coblenz in Western Germany was the centre of the counter-revolutionary emigration during the French Revolution. After the defeat of the 1848-49 European revolutions, many petty-bourgeois refugees flocked to Switzerland.— 561 The demagogues were members of an opposition movement among German .
[638] intellectuals. The word won circulation in this sense after the Carlsbad Conference of Ministers of German States'in August 1819, which adopted a special resolution against the 'intrigues of demagogues'.—561
[639] (>39 This refers to Wilhelm Dönniges' work 'Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reichs unter der Herrschaft König und Kaiser Ottos I. von 951 bis 973' in Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reichs unter dem Sächsischen Hause. Herausgegeben von Leopold Ranke. Erster Band. Dritte Abtheilung. Berlin, 1839. In calling Dönniges a born 'valet' of history, Marx is alluding to the saying, 'No man is a hero to his valet' which was quoted, in particular, by Hegel in his Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte.—561
[640] Marx means the General Association of German Workers (see Note 536).— 561
[641] This refers to the Berlin Workers' Association, founded in January 1863. It was under the influence of the Party of Progress. Schulze-Delitzsch frequently gave lectures on the co-operative movement to its members (see also Note 529).—
[312] 3 , 2 Yankees was the nickname given by British soldiers to residents of New England in the eighteenth century. During and after the Civil War (1861-65) it was used to denote the Northerners.—293, 325, 368, 400, 416, 562
[511] Engels speaks about the possible revival of the Holy Alliance, the association of European monarchs founded at the Congress of Vienna on 26 September 1815 on the initiative of Emperor Alexander I of Russia and the Chancellor of Austria, Metternich, for protecting the 'legitimate' regimes restored after the victory over Napoleon and for suppressing revolutionary and national liberation movements.—456, 505, 513, 543
[167] 107 Boustrapa—nickname of Louis Bonaparte, composed of the first syllables of the names of the cities where he staged putsches: Strasbourg (30 October 1836), Boulogne (6 August 1840) and Paris (coup d'état of 2 December 1851, which culminated in the establishment of a Bonapartist dictatorship).—139, 456, 462,
[1] An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934]. Marx began his letter on a form of the General Bank of Switzerland under the letter from Freiligrath, who was manager of the bank's London branch.— 3
[5] The Association of German Men was an organisation of German refugees in London set up after the defeat of the 1848-49 revolution in Germany.—4, 309
[239] 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 Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.—220, 409, 424, 427,
[577] 1,7 At the end of February 1864, after the Prussian troops had entered Jutland (see Note 572), the British government, to prevent the spread of hostilities, proposed calling in London a conference of the powers signatory to the 1852 protocol on the integrity of the Danish monarchy (see Note 324) with a view to settling the Prusso-Austro-Danish conflict. However, the conference, initially due to open on 12 April 1864, was repeatedly postponed because Prussia and Austria, who were doing everything to delay its convocation, did not send their representatives. Though it did open eventually, the two-month deliberations (25 April to 25 June) produced no results because of sharp contradictions between the participants. No sooner did the conference close than Prussia and Austria resumed the fighting in Denmark.—513, 517, 519, 538, 543
[3] The German Workers' Educational Society in London was founded in February 1840 by Karl Schapper, Joseph Moll and other members of the League of the Just (an organisation of German craftsmen and workers, and also of emigrant workers of other nationalities). After the reorganisation of the League of the Just in the summer of 1847 and the founding of the Communist League, the latter's local communities played the leading role in the Society. During various periods of its activity, the Society had branches in working-class districts in London. In 1847 and 1849-50, Marx and Engels took an active part in the Society's work, but on 17 September 1850 Marx, Engels and a number of their followers withdrew because the Willich-Schapper sectarian and adventurist faction had succeeded in temporarily increasing its influence in the Society and caused a split in the Communist League (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 483 and 632). In the late 1850s, Marx and Engels resumed their work in the Society. It existed until 1918 when it was closed down by the British government.—3, 94, 103, 232, 342, 517, 533
[249] An extract from this letter was first published in English in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Civil War in the United States, New York, 1937 — 241,
[607] An allusion to the Warsaw Protocol of 1851 (see Note 571) and the London Protocol of 1852 (see Note 380).—532
[67] An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in The Letters of Karl Marx. Selected and Translated with Explanatory Notes and an Introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.—32,
[630] 6S0 faZy suffered a crushing defeat at the elections to the Geneva Canton Council in August 1864, following the exposure of his financial machinations as President of the General Bank of Switzerland. After the elections, Fazy's supporters caused disturbances by attacking voters who had opposed him at the polls. When Swiss government troops were sent to Geneva to restore order, Fazy fled to France. Freiligrath was a member of the board of the London branch of the General Bank of Switzerland.— 555, 556
[369] p a r t o r this letter was first published in English in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, 1934.—330, 399, 403, 419, 422, 448, 453, 460,