1866
Dear Moor,
£10 encl. in 2 Bank-of-England notes. How stands it with bill of exchange for LANDLORD? Tell me how much and date when due, so that I may make my dispositions.
That malicious compilation of Social-Demokrat garbage in the Schulze-Delitzschite pamphletb had already been sent me anonymously from Berlin; it is always a good thing to have such a résumé with extracts. Schulze-Delitzsch has also announced that in the next few days he is to publish a reply to Lassalle, in which he is going to demolish him. [72]
You will already know as well that Racowija died of consumption, so presumably Mamsell Dönniges is once more IN THE MARKET, IF
EVER SHE WAS FAIRLY OUT OF IT.
Mr Held's speech has also been sent me from Berlin. He's a real Berlin scoundrel.
Monsieur Bonaparte's progress is most decidedly that of the crab. The trouble in the army over Mexico[270] is very serious, and so is the student trouble in Paris.[269] It is very important that the Paris students should take the side of the proletariat, confused though their ideas on the subject may be. The École polytechnique will follow soon enough. It would be so splendid if the rascal lived to see his own DOWNFALL, and it now almost appears that he might. It is getting more and more rotten for Bismarck every day, too, and, if those scoundrels in Cologne had not got him out of the soup, it would probably already have been all up with him now.[237]
120. Marx to Engels. 5 January
I am agog for the next parliament, the disintegration of the old parties must surely proceed apace now. JOHN BRIGHT IS EVIDENTLY BIDDING FOR OFFICE — it is true, I have not yet read the speech he gave yesterday.[3]
Have you read Tyndall's 'HEAT CONSIDERED AS A MODE OF MOTION'? If not, you should d o so. A great deal of work has been done in this field, and the matter appears to be assuming a rational shape; the atom theory is being taken to such extremes that it must soon fall apart.
Please don't forget to send me The Workman's Advocate and The Free Press.
Regards and best wishes to your family for the New Year.
Your
F. E.
120
MARX T O ENGELS [3 3]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 5 JANUARY 1866
DEAR FRED,
In the greatest of haste. Best thanks for the £ 1 0 . T h e bill of exchange falls d u e on 18 February and is for £48. I wanted the LANDLORD to draw it only for the 2 terms that were d u e and not for the third one as well, which is not d u e until the end of January. But he insisted.
A plot has been hatched against the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, in which connection I need your co-operation. Further details later. For the moment, suffice to say: Mr Le Lubez and Vésinier (the latter well aware that an INQUIRY into his past is in progress; he is in Brussels again) have a French branch here[273] (INFACT an opposition branch); Longuet, the editor of Rive gauche, also belongs to it, and it is tied up with all that pack of Proudhonists in Brussels. Vésinier began by publishing a long screed against us in the Echo de
Verniers, OF COURSE ANONYMOUSLY.[274] Then, in the same paper which is putting out the SLANDERS against our Association (among other things, falsely calls Tolain and Fribourg Bonapartists, too), the London BRANCH published a programme, a draft of future statutes, which they, the Faithful, are going to put to the Congress.[275]
The real crux of the controversy is the Polish question. The fellows have all attached themselves to the Muscovitist line pursued by Proudhon and Herzen. I shall therefore send you the earlier articles by the oracles in the Tribune du Peuple against Poland and you must do a refutation, either for our papers in Geneva (the 'German' one") or for The Workman's Advocate?16 The Russian gentlemen have acquired some bran-new allies in the Proudhonised section of 'Jeune France'.b
Your
K. M.
121. Marx to Johann Philipp Becker. About 13 January[33]
My dear friend Becker,
If you are vexed with me, you have 'every right' and at the same time 'no right' to be so. (You know from Heinzen that I am a 'sophist'.) Apart from having some 1,200 pages of manuscript11 to copy and my publisher(1) grumbling at me for a long time now, and apart from the fearful waste of time which the Central Committee, the STANDING COMMITTEE[21] and the Committee of Directors of The Workman's Advocate commit me to in this Babylon, I have had the most exceptional aggravations and difficulties in my 'private circumstances' which obliged me to leave London for a while[249] and are still unresolved, etc., etc.
You will see from the enclosed note, which I received today (or rather my wife did), that a parcel, which I sent to you ABOUT 14 days ago, has been most commendably confiscated by the French police. It contained chiefly 'Manifestoes of the Communist Party'.b
Also a note from me briefly answering your questions and telling you that Bender agreed that I should publish your appeal in English in The Workman's Advocate, ditto a report on activity in Switzerland, etc.[277]
The reason why we decided not to publish any official report on the conference[246]—apart from lack of money and the fact that the Rules oblige us to present a general report to the Congress, such double emploi" thus to be avoided — was basically that to initiate the public in the situation, especially the very 'fragmentary' nature of the conference, would do us more harm than good and provide our opponents with a useful weapon. We knew that two members of the Central Committee, Le Lubez and Vesinier, were just waiting to seize this opportunity. Events have confirmed this. Firstly, Vésinier's denunciation of the Central Committee and the conference in L'Écho de VerviersPc Directly following that, in the same paper, came Le Lubez' declaration of principles and draft of statutes[2 5] that he hoped to impose on the Association in the name of the French branch he had founded in London as a counterweight to ourselves.[273] This plot has meanwhile been frustrated. The branch has deserted its founder. Its two best men, Longuet (editor of the Rive gauche) and Crespelle, have joined the Central Committee. The latter has resolved that Vésinier must either substantiate his slanders or be expelled.
I cannot send you any articles pro nunce I have not an hour to spare. Engels, however, will do so, as soon as he has seen the first numberf and knows where and how. Liebknecht will as well, from Leipzig. I will ditto write to Dr Kugelmann in Hanover about it. Ditto to Stumpf in Mainz.
No. 1 of Dupleix's paper' is weak. Jung has written to him about it.
Liebknecht is living at 2 Gerichtsweg, Leipzig (address J. Miller*). In one way the movement here has progressed well, but badly in another respect. The Reform League we founded has held a mass MEETING for universal suffrage, bigger than I ever saw here in London.[267] All the speakers were working men. The Times itself was shocked and published 2 leading articles about the 'ugly' incident.1" The obverse side is that this movement is demanding far too much of our best working-class forces.
The Workman's Advocate is weak. It will improve now that Eccarius is editor. But there are enormous difficulties in raising the money for it.
I have received a letter from Berlin, signed by Vogt,c Metzner and other workers, in which they give a perceptive and critical assessment of the present state of the workers' movement in Germany. The only uncritical thing about it is their demand that I should come to Berlin and take the matter in hand. Surely they must know that the Prussian government has 'forbidden' me to settle in Prussia.*1
Before I hear from you by what way I can let you have the 'Manifestoes', I am going to send one experimentally via Mainz. You may be able to make use of some things in it for your paper.
The best thing the German sections can do is for the time being to register in Geneva and keep in continuous contact with you. As soon as some such arrangement is made, let me know, so that at last I can announce at least some progress in Germany here?16
I am sending this letter under cover to Dupleix, on account of the 'French confiscation'. The Empire seems to me to be tottering. D'abord,' the business with Mexico and the UNITED STATES.[270] Then the mutiny of 3 French regiments.[279] Then the student unrest.[269]
Bonaparte's losing his head, as manifested in his row with England about the renewal of the 'extradition treaty'[280] and his banning of the lickspittling 'Indépendance belge'. Finally, the trade crisis, which will be greatly hastened by the present English, resp. European, overimporting to the UNITED STATES.
Best greetings from wife and children.
Your
K. Marx First published in: Marx and Engels, Printed according to the original Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, . Moscow, 1934 Published in English in full tor the '__ first time
122. Marx to Engels. 15 January
122
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 15 January 1866"
DEAR FRED,
Laura quite forgot to send you the Tribunes'[3] which I had put out ready a week ago. She is today making amends for her negligence. Ditto a Workman's Advocate.
I am enclosing with this letter:
1. Communication from the publisher in Vienna.0 (You musL send this back.)[281]
2. Dr Kugelmann. 3. Meyerd from Berlin. (I have only written back to these people today. Time is so very short.)[282]
In the meantime, we have crushed the wretched plot hatched by Vesinier in BelgiumJ74 and by Le Lubez in London. The editor of the Rive gauche and friend of Rogeard, Longuet, also Mr Crespelle — the two most intelligent members of the branch founded by Le Lubez[273]—have joined our Central Committee. His branch has declared itself against him, for us. The CENTRAL
COMMITTEE HAS SUMMONED VÉSINIER 'TO SUBSTANTIATE HIS ACCUSATIONS OR TO BE EXPELLED'. The fellow reproaches us in the Echo de Verviers among other things for:
'II' (le comité) 'a été chargé d'un des plus grands intérêts de l'humanité et il abandonne de gaieté de coeur le but sublime pour dégénérer en comité des nationalités à la remorque du bonapartisme.'e
And this degeneration was in fact made manifest in us by our statement in favour of Poland, against Russia.[283]
'Cédant à des influences fâcheuses'' (the idiot imagines the Polish § of the programme originated from the PARIS DELEGATES, whereas the latter sought in every possible way to get rid of it as 'inopportune'), 'il a inscrit dans le programme du Congrès de Genève des questions en dehors du but de l'association et contraires au droit, à la justice, à la liberté, à la fraternité, à la solidarité des peuples et des races, telles que celles: "D'anéantir l'influence russe en Europe etc.", et cela juste au moment où les serfs russes et polonais viennent d'être émancipés par la Russie, tandis que les nobles et les prêtres polonais ont toujours refusé d'accorder la liberté aux leurs. On conviendra au moins que le moment est mal choisi. Avant d'approuver ces articles, les membres anglais du comité auraient bien dû se demander s'il ne serait pas aussi urgent de mettre un terme aux progrès effrayants du paupérisme anglais, de la prostitution des ouvrières, et de la misère des ouvriers de la Grande Bretagne, de la famine et du dépeuplement de l'Irlande etc.! Quant au membre allemand du comité, qu'il nous dise aussi si l'influence de la politique de M. de Bismarck n'aurait pas aussi besoin d'être anéantie en Europe; la Prusse et l'Autriche ne sont-elles pas copartageantes de la Pologne et solidaires du crime de la Russie contre cette nation malheureuse? Et quant aux prétendus délégués de Paris, sont-ils bien venus de flétrir l'influence russe, alors que les soldats de Bonaparte occupent Rome qu'ils ont bombardée, massacrant les défenseurs de la république mexicaine après avoir détruit la république française? Que l'on compare les fautes et les crimes commis par les gouvernements, et l'on sera convaincu qu'il ne faut mettre aucun peuple au ban de l'humanité pour les forfaits de ses oppresseurs, que le devoir du comité central était de proclamer la solidarité, la fraternité entre tous les peuples, et non d'en mettre un seul d'entre eux au ban de l'Europe.'[3]
He then appended this lie:
'Cette faute énorme a déjà eu de fatales conséquences: les Polonais ont demandé en masse à faire partie du Comité, et sous peu ils seront en immense majorité.'b (CAPTAIN Bobczyriski is the only one who is on it — Holtorp doesn't count
a 'they included in the programme for the Geneva Congress questions not concerning the goal of the Association and contrary to law, justice, liberty, fraternity and the solidarity of peoples and races, such as: "the elimination of Russian influence in Europe etc."; and this they did at the very moment when the Russian and Polish serfs had just been emancipated by Russia, whereas the Polish nobility and priests have always refused to grant freedom to their own. It will at least be agreed that the moment was ill-chosen. Before approving these articles, the English members of the committee should have really asked themselves if it was not a matter of equal urgency to put an end to the frightening increase in English pauperism, in the prostitution of working women and the misery of working men in Great Britain, in famine and depopulation in Ireland, etc.! As for the German members of the committee, let them also tell us whether the influence of Mr Bismarck's policy in Europe does not equally merit elimination; do not Prussia and Austria have an equal share in the partitioning of Poland, are they not equally responsible for Russia's crime against that unfortunate nation? As for the self-styled delegates from Paris, does it come well from them to condemn the influence of Russia, when Bonaparte's soldiers are occupying Rome, which they have bombarded, are massacring the defenders of the Mexican republic, having already destroyed the French republic? If one compares the misdeeds and crimes committed by governments, one is persuaded that no people should be put beyond the pale of humanity for the infamies of its oppressors, and that it was the duty of the Central Committee to proclaim solidarity and fraternity among all peoples, and not to put one of them alone beyond the pale of Europe.' - b 'This enormous error has already had dire consequences: the Poles have asked to join the Committee en masse and before long they will represent the overwhelming majority.' 15 1866
and is himself conspiring with Le Lubez.) 'Déjà ils ne se font pas faute de dire qu'ils se serviront de l'Association pour aider au rétablissement de leur nationalité, sans s'occuper de la question de l'émancipation des travailleurs.'[3]
T h e Poles — they had just sent a deputation to see us — burst out laughing when these PASSAGES were read out. We are commemorat-ing their revolution on 23 January. [2 8 4]
You will be amused by WISEACRE Denis' concluding prayer to Proudhon?m This SENSATIONAL WRITER has done great harm with his little bit of learning and with his Lassalle-like trumpeting of scholarship, of which he had no conception, with his spurious critical superiority over the SOCIALIST SECTARIANS.
Le Lubez is of n o account. Fox righdy calls him 'Le père enfantin', b but Vesinier is just the fellow for the Russians. Of little merit as a writer, as his Vie du Nouveau César and his other pamphlets attacking Bonaparte show. But with talent, great RHETORICAL POWER, much energy and above all unscrupulous through and through.
Salut. Your
K. M.
123. Marx to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 15 January[1]
Dear LIBRARY,*1
Happy New Year! You must excuse my silence, ditto the brevity of these lines of mine. You will not believe how BOTHERED I am for time.
a Already they do not shrink from saying that they will make use of the Association to help to restore their nationhood, without concerning themselves with the question of the emancipation of the workers.' - b 'Le père enfantin' ('The childish father') — a pun on 'Père Enfantin' ('Father Enfantin'). An allusion to Le Lubez' efforts to imitate the chief representative of the Saint-Simonian school, Barthélémy Prosper Enfantin. - c The letter bears the stamp: International Working Men's Association / Central Council / London - d nickname for Wilhelm Liebknecht Indisposition, for ever recurring periodically, all manner of unfortunate mischances, demands made on me by the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, etc., have confiscated every free moment I have for writing out the fair copy of my manuscript.[3] I hope to be able to take Volume I of it to the publisherb for printing myself in March. (The whole thing, the two volumes, will, however, appear simultaneously-23S This is good.)
So, this very much by way of summary. Today I am sending you by post the 2 latest issues of The Workman's Advocate, of which Eccarius is now editor.0 If, as I hope, you send any articles for it, please do so to me (political, social, as you will).
I also enclose CARDS OF MEMBERSHIP for you. I have paid for them. You can therefore give them to whomever you like, and have only to inscribe the name and after the £, put 0, but after the 0s., Id.
The conditions, GENERALLY, are these: a society as such that wishes to join has an Association collective membership Card, for which 5s. per year is to be paid. But, if all the members join individually, they have to take out cards of the kind I am sending you. This is advantageous for workers. The cards serve as a passport abroad, and their confreres'* in London, Paris, Brussels, Lyons, Geneva, etc., will get jobs for them.
The Association has made great progress. It already has 1 official English paper, The Workman's Advocate, a Brussels one, La Tribune du Peuple, a French one in Geneva, Journal de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs, Section de la Suisse Romande, and a German one in Geneva, Der Vorbote, which will be appearing in a few days. Address: 6 rue du Môle, Genf, ]. P. Becker, in case you want to write to the old man occasionally (as I hope you will).
I am now hoping you will soon make it possible for me to announce the foundation of a Leipzig section and enable me to present correspondence. (In English. It can then be used in The Workman's Advocate as well.) The number is not important, although THE MORE, THE BETTER.
If people want to join en masse, as a society, you will see that the total price of 5s., which they have to pay annually, is nothing. J. P. Becker writes to me e:
'Sections are going to be formed in Leipzig, Gotha, Stuttgart and Nuremberg; shall we register them here for the time being, until there is a large number and a Central Committee has been formed in Germany?'[278]
[11] Capital - b Otto Meissner - c See this volume, p. 224. - d colleagues - e J. Ph. Becker to Karl Marx, 18 December 1865 I have replied in the affirmative.(1) However, since there can be several branches in one town, you and your people can establish links direct with us.
I have had a second letter from the Berliners.b I am at last writing to them today.[282] Ditto to Dr Kugelmann.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
I will let you know next time what questions are to be dealt with at the Geneva Congress at the end of May.[286]
124. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 15 January[66]
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill
Dear Friend,
A happy New Year and best thanks for your kind letter. You must excuse the brevity of these lines on account of my being excessively busy at present. I'll write more fully next time.
I am enclosing two cards[287] and will let you know in my next letter which questions are to be dealt with at the public congress in Geneva at the end of May.[286]
Our Association has made great progress. It already has 3 official organs, one in London, The Workman's Advocate, one in Brussels, La Tribune du Peuple, one put out by the French section in Switzerland, Journal de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs,
Section de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), and in a few days time a journal is to be put out by the German-Swiss section, Der Vorbote, under the editorship of /. P. Becker. (Address: 6 rue du Môle, Genf, J. P. Becker, in case you wanted to send him an occasional article, political or social).
We have succeeded in attracting into the movement the only really big workers' organisation, the English 'TRADE UNIONS, which previously concerned themselves exclusively with the wage question. With their help, the English society we founded to achieve UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE(1) (half of its Central Committee consists of members — working men — of our Central Committee) held a giant MEETING a few weeks ago, at which only working men spoke.[267] You can tell what effect it had from the fact that the LEADERS of two successive issues of The Times were concerned with this MEETiNc.b
As regards my work,c I am now busy 12 hours a day writing out the fair copy. I am thinking of taking the manuscript of the first volume to Hamburg myself in March and using the opportunity to see you.
I was much amused by the antics of Justus von Möser's successor.d How wretched a man of talent must be who seeks and finds satisfaction in trivialities of that kind!e
As regards Bürgers, he is doubtless well-meaning, but weak. It is not much over a year ago that he declared at a public MEETING in Cologne (it appeared in print in the Cologne papers) that Schulze-Delitzsch had 'solved' the social question once and for all and that only personal friendship for me had induced him (Bürgers) to stray onto the tangled paths of communism! After such public statements, could I regard him as other than a 'renegade'?
Your most sincere friend
K. Marx
125. Marx to Sigfrid Meyer. 24 January
Dear Friend,
At the same time as I sent the cards to you, I wrote a detailed letter to Mr Vogt.a I thought I was being very clever in using two different addresses. The only error I may possibly have committed is to have put No. 6 instead of 16 in Vogt's address.[288]
I should therefore be grateful if you would enquire at the Post Office and inform me of the results. Since I wrote to you,[282] a fresh carbuncle has developed in a spot that is very painful when I sit, so that after my daily labour of fair-copying my manuscriptb
for the publisher^ I am extraordinarily exhausted.
Your
K. M.
126. Engels to Marx. 26 January
Dear Moor,
What is holding me up is that I have no material and hardly any recollection either about the way in which the emancipation of the serfs was finally carried out in Russia, what land the peasant received, who paid for it, what his present de facto relation is to
127. Marx to Engels. 10 February
the landowner, etc., etc. I have undoubtedly seen the earlier plans of the nobility and the emperor,3 but not the definitive implemen-tation. Have you any material on itb?
Your
F. E.
N.B. I shall not refer directly to the article in the 1864 Tribune,0
cela serait lui faire trop d'honneur?
127
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 February 1866
Dear Fritz,
It was a close shave this time. My family did not know how sérieux the case was. If the matter recurs in that form three or four times more, I shall be a dead man. I am marvellously wasted away and still damned weak, not in the mind but about my loins and in my legs. The doctors are quite right to think that excessive work at night has been the chief cause of this relapse. But I cannot tell these gentlemen the reasons that force this extravagance on me — nor would it serve any purpose to do so. At this moment, I have all kinds of little progeny about my person, which is painful but no longer in the least dangerous.
What was most loathsome to me was the interruption in my work/ which had been going splendidly since JANUARY 1ST, when I got over my liver complaint. There was no question of 'sitting', of lying down, I was able to forge ahead, even if only for short periods of the day. I could make no progress with the really theoretical part. My brain was not up to that. I therefore elaborated the section on the ' Working-Day' from the historical point of view, which was not part of my original plan. What I have now 'inserted' supplements your book" (sketchily) up to 1865 (and I say so in a note[289]) and fully justifies the discrepancy between your estimation of the future and what will actually happen. Therefore, as soon as my book appears, it is necessary to have the second edition of your book, which will be easy in the circumstances. I shall provide the necessary theory. Regarding the additional historical supplement, which you should give as an appendix to your book, all the material, excepting the 'FACTORY REPORTS',** the 'Children's Employment Commission Reports' and the 'Board of Health Reports',c is utter trash and scientifically unusable. Your energy being undiminished by carbuncles, you will easily cope with this material within 3 months.
As far as the Russians are concerned, I have no material. As soon as my condition permits, I shall go to the Museumd about it and look around for it among the Poles. There's been a great crisis with The Workman's Advocate, which will appear tomorrow as The Commonwealth, a transformation pushed through by the bourgeois element, for which my absence from the COUNCIL was to blame. From my sickbed I have, nevertheless, managed to baulk the plot by means of written threats, with the effect that Eccarius has been made editor instead of a gentleman from The Nonconformist, and an EDITORIAL SUPERVISION COMMITTEE has been appointed which will meet weekly. It consists of myself, Fox, Howell, Weston and Miall (the PUBLISHER-EDITOR of The Nonconformist and our PUBLISHER NOW), 4 atheists against one 'PROTESTANT'.[290] POOR Eccarius now needs your articleL urgently (there being a whole mass of intrigues and I unable to help; my book requires all my writing time).
Your wine is having a miraculous effect on me. While my illness was in full bloom I had to buy bad PORTWINE — it being the only wine suitable for an acute carbuncle condition.
Apropos. As I see from one of the latest 'FACTORY REPORTS', John Watts has published a pamphlet 'ON MACHINERY.'f Ask him, on my behalf, to send me a copy.
128. Engels to Marx. 10 February
I am going to write a few lines to Wilhelm3 cursing him for his spinelessness. The collapse of the Social-Demokrat and of all the Lassallean trash is, of course, the very thing we want.[291]
Lyons (the workers there) have sent £8 to the INTERNATIONAL
COUNCIL.
Salut.
Your
Moor
128
ENGELS TO MARX"
IN LONDON'
Manchester, 10 February 1866
Dear Moor,
I have just spoken to Gumpert here and discussed your condition with him. He is firmly of the opinion you should try arsenic. He has used it in one case of carbuncles and one of very virulent furunculosis, and achieved a complete cure in approx. 3 months. He is now giving it to three ladies, so far with the greatest of success; they are positively thriving on it. FOWLERS SOLUTION is what he is giving, I believe it is 3 drops 3 times a day (I am not quite so sure about that any more), but altogether the patient takes about 1 grain of arsenic a day. In view of the specific effect that arsenic has with all skin diseases, there is every prospect of it being effective with you, too. He thinks iron would only have a symptomatic and hence strengthening effect. And with arsenic there is no special diet to be observed at all, just living well.
You really must at last do something sensible now to shake off this carbuncle nonsense, even if the bookc is delayed by another 3 months. The thing is really becoming far too serious, and if, as you say yourself, your brain is not UP TO THE MARK for the theoretical part, then do give it a bit of a rest from the more elevated theory. Give over working at night for a while and lead a rather more regular life. When you are yourself again, come up here for a fortnight or so, so that you have a bit of a change, and bring enough papers along with you for you to be able to do a spot of work here — if you like. Incidentally, the 60 sheets will make 2 thick volumes.(1) Can you not so arrange things that the first volume at least is sent for printing first and the second one a few months later? This would keep both publisherb and public happy and yet no time will have been lost realiter}'
You must also bear in mind that as things stand now, the situation on the Continent may change rapidly. In Prussia things are moving with marvellous rapidity. Bismarck is pressing hard for a crisis. First the decision by the Supreme Tribunal,[292] and then now the threat of an authentic interpretation of the constitution by the King.c The philistines' last illusion about peaceful historical development has gone to the devil. The first plausible pretext, perhaps no more than a serious complication over Schleswig-Holstein even, may be the spark that sets it off, once the troops are concentrated on the frontier; although I myself hardly believe that anything will happen without a more general cause, but the possibility is there. What would be gained in these circumstances by having perhaps a few chapters at the end of your book completed, and not even the first volume can be printed, if events take us by surprise? Something may happen any day in France, too, in Austria the attempted reconciliation with Hungary can only lead to sharper division.
Q.E.D.: get yourself back on your feet and ad hocd give the arsenic a try.
Your
F. E.
Kind regards to Madamee and the YOUNG LADIES.
129. Marx to Engels. 13 February
129
MARX TO ENGELS[101]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 13 February 1866
DEAR FRED,
Tell or write to Gumpert to send me the prescription with instructions for use. As I have confidence in him, he owes it to the best of 'Political Economy'" if nothing else to ignore professional etiquette and treat me from Manchester.
I was laid up again yesterday with a vicious cur of a carbuncle erupting on left loin. If I had enough money, that is, more>—0, for my family, and if my book were ready, I would care not a fig whether I was thrown on the charnel heap today or tomorrow, alias perished. But things being as they are, that cannot be contemplated just yet.
As far as this 'damned' book is concerned, the position now is: it was ready at the end of December.[227] The treatise on ground rent alone, the penultimate chapter, is in its present form almost long enough to be a book in itself.[294] I have been going to the Museumb in the day-time and writing at night. I had to plough through the new agricultural chemistry in Germany, in particular Liebig and Schönbein, which is more important for this matter than all the economists put together, as well as the enormous amount of material that the French have produced since I last dealt with this point. I concluded my theoretical investigation of ground rent 2 years ago. And a great deal had been achieved, especially in the period since then, fully confirming my theory incidentally. And the opening up of Japan[295] (by and large I normally never read travel-books if I am not professionally obliged to) was also important here. So here was the 'SHIFTING SYSTEM', as it was applied by those curs of English manufacturers to one and the same persons in 1848-50, being applied by me to myself.[296]
Although ready, the manuscript, which in its present form is gigantic, is not fit for publishing for anyone but myself, not even for you.
I began the business of copying out and polishing the style on the dot of January first, and it all went ahead swimmingly, as I naturally enjoy licking the infant clean after long birth-pangs. But then the carbuncle intervened again, so that I have since been unable to make any more progress but only to fill out with more facts those sections which were, according to the plan, already finished.
Otherwise, I agree with you and shall get the first volume to Meissner as soon as it is ready.[3] But in order to complete it, I must at least be able to sit.
Please do not forget to write to Watts,(1) as I have now reached my chapter on machinery.[297]
Could you not dash off an article on Prussia for The Commonwealth, under the rubric Berlin? Bear in mind how important it is for us to have a firm footing in London. The articles on Polandb can take their time. But with the German papers, which are at your disposal, it would be fun for you to write about Prussia. My influence here depends partly on people seeing at last that I do not stand entirely alone.
I am less bothered by political affairs (not quac individual but on account of the book) than by the economic situation, which is pointing more and more ominously to a crisis.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Greetings to your 'Irish' lady-friend.e The Irish ladies, notabene Roses O'Donovan, etc., have thanked us for the appeal in our paper and for Fox's articles.[298]
130. Marx to Engels. 14 February
Dear FRED,
Most sincere thanks for the first half of the £50 note. In respect of the 'Viennese',[3] I wrote him LONG SINCE that he should write to you. I told him I was agreeable to anything, except that I did not know UNDER PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES if I would be capable of supplying a contribution for the first issue.[281]
That cur of a carbuncle is working away, but I hope to be rid of it in a few days.
Things are really aboil in Prussia. Yet the patience of our friends is great. If Bismarck sends them home, everything will now result in banqueting and Kappel-Klassenmann.[224] On the other hand, if the Chamber sits for long, the outcome may be
9QQ nasty. Salut. Your
K. M.
131. Marx to Friedrich Lessner. 14 February[300]
You will see what the matter is from the enclosed letter from Freiligrath. Please do what you can.
Salut. Y o u r
K. M.
132. Engels to Marx. 19 February
I cannot find Freiligrath's letter. His wife will give you the details about Ulmer's situation. His wife has died, and he has no money to bury her. Our Society" must therefore do something at once. You must send the money to Freiligrath.
132
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 19 February 1866
Dear Moor,
Had encl. £10 note for you in my pocket, but could not get to speak to you on your own yesterday.[301] I hope that today's expiry date for the bill of exchange passed uneventfully and that the trifling deficit from the full amount occasioned no unpleasantness.
I have forgotten everything—'Klein Zaches'b that I put on top of a row of upright books in the book-case at the foot of the sofa in your room, the 'FACTORY REPORT"[7] and The Commonwealth. Please send me a copy of the latter for me to read Fox's article.d
How is the upper carbuncle, and the one down on your thigh? I have not yet been able to see Gumpert.
Your
F. E.
Sincere regards to the LADIES and especially little Tussye from her chimpanzee.
133. Marx to Engels. 20 February :
133
MARX TO ENGELS[6]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 20 February 1866
Dear FRED,
You can imagine how opportunely the £10 came. I had been served with two threats of distraint, for £6 "0" 9d. for the bloody municipal TAXES, and for lsh. 16d. for the QUEENS TAXES. And I had until Friday to pay.
As regards the carbuncles, the position is: Concerning the upper one, from my long practical experience I was able to tell you that it really needed lancing. Today (Tuesday), after receiving your letter, I took a sharp razor, a RELICT OF DEAR LUPUS, and lanced the cur myself. (I cannot abide doctors meddling with my private parts or in their vicinity. Furthermore, I have Allen's testimony THAT I AM ONE OF THE BEST SUBJECTS TO BE OPERATED UPON. I always recognise what has to be done.) The sang brûle',(1) AS MRS LORMIER SAVS, spurted, or rather leapt, right up into the air, and I now consider this carbuncle buried, although IT STILL WANTS SOME
NURSING.
As far as the lower cur is concerned, it is becoming malignant and is beyond my control and kept me from sleeping the whole night through. If this diabolical business advances, I shall have to send for Allen, of course, as, owing to the locus of the cur, I am unable TO WATCH AND CURE it myself. And in general it is clear that ON THE WHOLE I know more about carbuncular complaints than most doctors.
And by the by, I still hold to the view that I suggested to Gumpert during my last STAY in Manchester: that is, that the itching and scratching between my testis and posterior over the past 2 Va years and the consequent peeling of the skin have been more aggravating to my constitution than anything else. The business started 6 months before the first monster carbuncle which I had on my back, and it has persisted ever since.
My dear BOY, in all these circumstances one appreciates MORE THAN EVER the good fortune of a friendship such as exists between ourselves. You should know for your part that there is no relationship I value so highly.
I will send you 'Zaches' and 'FACTORY REPORTS'* tomorrow. You will understand, MY DEAR FELLOW, that in a work such as mine,b there are bound to be many SHORTCOMINGS in the detail. But the composition, the structure, is a triumph of German scholarship, which an individual German may confess to, since it is IN NO WAY his merit but rather belongs to the nation. Which is all the more gratifying, as it is otherwise the SILLIEST NATION under the sun!
The fact, which Liebig had 'denounced' and which prompted Schönbein's investigations, was this:
The upper layers of the soil always contain more ammonia than the deeper ones, instead of containing less of it as they would have to do if they had lost it through cultivation. The fact was recognised by every chemist. Only the cause was unknown.
Hitherto, decay was considered to be the sole source of ammonia. All chemists (including Liebig) denied that the nitrogen in the air could serve as a nutrient for plants.
Schönbein proved (by experiment) that any flame burning in the air converts a certain quantity of the nitrogen in the air into ammonium nitrate, that every process of decomposition gives rise to both nitric acid and ammonia, that the mere evaporation of water is the means causing the formation of both plant nutrients.
Finally, Liebig's 'jubilation' at this discovery:
'The combustion of a pound of coal or wood restores to the air not merely the elements needed to reproduce this pound of wood or, under certain conditions, coal, but the process of combustion in itself (note the Hegelian category) 'transforms a certain quantity of nitrogen in the air into a nutrient indispensable for the production of bread and meat.'1
I FEEL PROUD OF THE GERMANS. I T IS OUR DUTY TO EMANCIPATE THIS 'DEEP' PEOPLE.
Your
K. M.
Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 31, Moscow, 1963
134. Engels to Marx. 22 February
134
ENGELS TO MARX[302]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 22 February 1866
Dear Moor,
Thanks for 'Klein Zaches',(1) etc., which I take as evidence that you have received the £10.
I have just come from Gumpert, whom I did not see until this evening on account of my influenza and having missed him several times. He considers that you should start the arsenic at once. Whatever happens it can do you no harm, but only good. He dismisses Allen's comment that it does not agree with you as rubbish. He also considers treatment with poultices to be nonsense; it only encourages inflammation of the skin, which is precisely what needs to be suppressed, while it does not encourage suppuration. Ice-packs would be much better, but as long as you are in Allen's hands, these could only be applied if he prescribed them, of course. But above all, sea air, to restore your strength. A spot on the south coast would be preferable, it is true, as in this season the weather there is better than up here, but if you would rather be near Gumpert, there are places enough on the coast h e r e WITHIN AN HOUR'S RIDE FROM MANCHESTER. You can see I have got Gumpert to change his attitude, so that he is now pressing you to take arsenic at once, even though Allen is still treating you externally, whereas before, for reasons of etiquette, he would not hear of it. But do me a favour now and take the arsenic, and come up here just as soon as your condition permits, so that you do at last get better. With this constant procrastination you are just ruining yourself; no one can withstand such a chronic succession of carbuncles for long, apart from the fact that eventually you may get one that becomes so acute as to be the end of you. And where will your bookb and your family be then?
You know that I am prepared to do what is in my power, and, in this extreme case, more even than I ought to risk in other circumstances. But you must be sensible, too, and do me and your family the one favour of getting yourself cured. What would become
135. Marx to Engels. 2 March
of the whole movement if anything were to happen to you, and the way you are proceeding, that will be the inevitable outcome. I really shall not have any peace day or night until I have got you over this business, and every day that passes without my hearing anything from you, I worry and imagine you are worse again.
Nota bene. You should never again let things come to such a pass that a carbuncle which actually ought to be lanced, is not lanced. That is extremely dangerous.
Kindest regards to the LADIES.
Your
F. E.
135
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 2 March 1866
DEAR FRED, The thing will soon be all over now. I think that by tomorrow or the day after at the latest I shall not merely be able to rise from my bed, but to go out, and that with this last malignant cur the series of carbuncles is finished, FOR THIS SEASON. I also feel much better again GENERALLY. This last attack was atrocious. It did not merely put paid to any work, but to any reading, too, EXCEPT Walter Scott.
I found the arsenic not at all unpleasant to begin with (when the taste of the CINNAMON predominated). Now I am beginning to find its specific flavour most repugnant. Otherwise, I believe it was helpful. I took it 3 TIMES A DAY from the outset.
How are things with your contributions for The Commonwealth?* And with John Watts 'ON MACHINERY'?13
136. Engels to Marx. 5 March
The sofa to which I have been confined for 9 days now is in my study, but right by the window, so that at certain times of day, e. g. as at this moment, T can enjoy a most refreshing breeze.
You have no further cause for anxiety now, but AS FAR AS ACTUAL OUTBREAKS ARE CONCERNED you can regard the business as terminated.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Little Tussy a 'SENDS HER BEST COMPLIMENTS TO HER CHIMP'.
136
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 5 March 1866 Dear Moor,
Gumpert is décidément* of the opinion that, just as soon as your condition allows, you should go to the seaside for at least 4 weeks and in any case have a change of air. Now what do you think of that? Would you prefer to go to a seaside resort near here (Lytham, or Blackpool or New Brighton perhaps) or on the south coast? Make your MIND up about it, and if the former, then come up here. I shall raise the money for the purpose and, as I promised you, a bit more as well. These constantly recurring carbuncles have really just got to stop, or you will be unable either to work or to do anything else. So, you must reach a decision.
You yourself disrupted my contributions for The Commonwealth'[1]
by asking for something on Prussia as well as on the Polish business.d As a result, the one was interrupted and the other not completed in time either. I was suddenly collared to CANVASS for the money for the Schiller Institute[28] which I told you about, and that kept me off it every evening last week, and I have to go out again now.e I expect to have got that behind me in a fortnight but, at all events, to dispatch an article on Poland this week.
a Eleanor Marx - b decidedly - c F. Engels, 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?'-d See this volume, p. 228. - e See present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 402-04.
137. Marx to Engels. 6 March
Fine revelations from Jamaica. And what an embarrassment they are to The Times, as well as Russell's resignation. The paper is going DOWN very rapidly.[303]
If possible, you must read the statement by the Cologne-Minden directors about their shady deal. They say that insofar as they are party to it, it is in law just a private arrangement; as soon as the King[3] ratifies it, he will have to sort out the constitutional side. In other words, the bourgeoisie in Cologne themselves do not want to
Kind regards to the LADIES.
Your
F. E.
137
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 6 March 1866
Dear FRED,
As it seems decided I am to go away, I think it is best to go to Margate. The air is particularly good there. Besides, not far from London in case anything were to happen. And although the last carbuncle has also disappeared, the wound has not healed up yet, so lengthy train journey would be awkward for me.
Now what ought I to do 'AT LARGE'?—according to Gumpert's prescriptions?
I am going out into the open air again for the first time today.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
139. Marx to Engels. 10 March
138. Engels to Marx. About 10 March
CONFIDENTIAL ! Excerpt from a letter to Freiligrath,[305] who asked me for information on some commercial philistine and, at the same time, expressed his regret at your illness and wished you well:
'Marx needs to rest from working at night and from worry, as well as sea-air and good living. That will put him back on his feet all right. Such troubles are spared to plump bourgeois like Blind. Instead, the poor man has the misfortune that for all the levers and thumbscrews he applies, nobody speaks of him other than Blind himself. Such fellows have their carbuncles on the insides of their skulls. But enough of the "DELIBERATE LIAR".
'How are you actually doing now? I hear the bank in London" has closed down. A good thing too, for you, in the long run, the liaison with Fazy and Co. could have compromised you later in some unforeseen way.[212] I am sure you will soon pick up a decent position again.'
In haste.
Your
F. E.
139
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 MARCH 1866 DEAR FRED,
Did you receive the lines I wrote last Tuesday?b I need to know in order to ascertain whether my letters are being tampered with. It was addressed to MRS Burns.
140. Marx to Engels. 15 March
If I am to go to the seaside at all, it will have to be now, as I do not wish to waste any time. I told you in my last letter that in that case I wanted to go to Margate, and the requisite steps must be attended to now. I also asked you in my little letter what Gumpert has in mind by the 'cure'? Continuing with the arsenic, etc., or what?
Everything is at sixes and sevens on the 'INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL' and the 'newspaper board',[3] and a great desire is being manifested to rebel against the absent 'tyrant',(1) but at the same time to wreck the whole shop as well.b My wound (from the last carbuncle) has healed up sufficiently (and so far no new one has appeared) for me to go out into company next Monday and Tuesday; but, at the same time, I can still scarcely endure those late meetings in some corner of Fleet Street,,ofi and what is even worse, I am still in a state of such nervous irritation that I could hardly contain the storms within 'the bounds of pure reason',c but would more probably explode with excessive violence, which would be pointless.
When shall we finally see Polish article I?d
Your
K. M.
140
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTERe
[London,] 15 March 1866
My dear Frederic,
The bearer of these lines is citizen Orsini, the brother of the immortal martyr,f and a member of our association. He leaves
141. Marx to Engels. 16 March
England for the United States, whence he will return in some months. Your advice on commercial matters may, perhaps, prove useful to him. At all events, you will be delighted to make his personal acquaintance.
Yours truly
K. Marx
Mr Frederic Engels, 7 Southgate, St Mary's, Manchester. PS. I know that Bradlaugh is an honest man and occupies a respectable position in the city as solicitor.
141
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
Margate [16 March 1866] 5 Lansell's Place
Dear FRED,
I arrived here yesterday evening.[307] I have been dashing about all day today (after taking a warm sea-bathe) and have only just returned to my lodgings (right by the sea) in order to send you my address before the post-office closes. You will get more detailed news tomorrow. Your first Polish article" will appear not this week, but next. The air here is wonderful.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
142. Marx to His Daughter Jenny. 16 March
142
MARX TO HIS DAUGHTER JENNY
IN LONDON
Margate, 16th March, 1866 5 Lansell's Place
My dear Child,
I arrived here yesterday evening, [3]/[4] past seven. According to your instructions I left my luggage behind me in the cloakroom and was then landed by the omnibus at a small inn called the 'King's Arms'. Having ordered a rump steak, and being shown to the coffee room, which was rather dimly illuminated, I took rather fright (you know my anxious temper) at a lean, long, stiff sort of man, midway between parson and commis-voyageur, solitarily and motionlessly seated before the chimney. From the vagueness of his glanceless eye, I thought him a blind man. I was confirmed in that notion by some long, scarf-like, narrow white thing spread over his legs, with regular holes in it. I fancied it to be paper outcut by the blind man to serve as a catchpenny from the frequenters of the inn. When my supper arrived the man began somewhat to wave, quietly took off his boots and warmed his elephantine feet at the fire. What with this agreeable spectacle, and his supposed blindness, and what with a rump steak, which seemed, in its natural state, to have belonged to a deceased cow, I passed the first Margate evening anything but comfortably. But, in compensation, the bedroom was snug, the bed clean and elastic and the sleep sound. When at the breakfast table, who should step in but the man of the evening. He turned out to be deaf and not blind. What had so much vexed me — I mean the thing on his knees — was a pocket handkerchief of singular fashion, with a greyish ground interspersed by black eyes which I had mistaken lor holes. Feeling shy of the man, I settled my bill as soon as possible and, after some erratic course, hit upon my present lodging, in front of the sea, a large sitting room and a bedroom, 10/- per week. When striking my bargain the additional clause was agreed upon that, on your arrival, you will get your bedroom for nothing.
The first thing I did was to take a warm sea-bathe. It was delicious, so is the air here. It is a wonderful air.
143. Marx to Antoinette Philips. 18 March
As to boarding houses, they are about empty now, and, as I understood the librarian, hardly yet prepared for the reception of guests. As to dining-rooms, there was some difficulty to get at a proper one, but by the by this obstacle will be overcome.
And now, with my best compliments to all, by-bye.
Yours
Mohr
I have already walked five hours to-day.
143
MARX TO ANTOINETTE PHILIPS
IN SALT-BOMMEL
Margate, 18 March 1866 5 Lansell's Place
My dear Child,
From the address you will see that I have been banished, by my medical adviser, to this seaside place, which, at this time of the year, is quite solitary. Margate lives only upon the Londoners, who regularly inundate it at the bathing season. During the other months it vegetates only. For my own part right glad I am to have got rid of all company, even that of my books. I have taken a private lodging which fronts the sea. In an inn or Hotel one might have been exposed to the danger of falling in with a stray traveller, or being pestered by local politics, vestry interests, and neighbourly gossip. As it is, 'I care for nobody, and nobody cares for me'.a But the air is wonderfully pure and reinvigorating, and you have here at the same time sea air and mountain air. I have become myself a sort of walking stick, running up and down the
from the English folk-song 'The Miller of the Dee' whole day, and keeping my mind in that state of nothingness which Buddhaism considers the climax of human bliss. Of course, you have not forgotten the pretty little diction: 'When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be; when the devil was well, the devil a monk was he.'
Withdrawing a little from the seaside, and roaming over the adjacent agricultural districts, you are painfully reminded of 'civilisation', because from all sides you are startled by large boards, with governmental proclamations on them, headed: Cattle Disease. The ruling English oligarchs were never suspected to care one farthing for 'der Menschheit ganzes Weh',(1) but as to cows and oxen, they feel deeply. At the opening of Parliament, the horned cattle gentlemen of both houses, commoners and lords, made a wild rush at government. All their talk sounded like a herd of cows' lowing, translated into English. And they were not like honest king Wiswamitra, 'der kämpfte und büsste für die Kuh Sabalah'.b On the contrary. They seized the opportunity to 'battre monnaie"[2] out of the cows' ailings at the expense of the people.[308]
By the by, the East sends us always nice things — Religion, Etiquette, and the Plague in all forms.
I am very glad to hear of Waaràtje'sc winding up adventure. Verily, verily, I tell thee, my sweet little cousin, I always felt deep sympathy for the man, and always hoped that one day or other he should fix his melting heart in the right direction, and not persevere performing the nasty part in the children's tale: 'The Beast and the Beauty'.e I'm sure he will make a good husband. Is his inamorata a 'Bommelerin' or an importation?
A few days before leaving London, I made the acquaintance of Mr Orsini, a very fine fellow, the brother of the Orsini who was sent to the grave for sending Bonaparte to Italy.[309] He has now left England for the U. States, in commercial matters, but during the few days of our acquaintance, he did me good service. Although an intimate friend of Mazzini's, he is far from sharing the antiquated antisocialist and theocratical views of Mazzini. Now, during my forced and prolonged absence from the Council of the International Association, Mazzini had been busy in stirring a sort of revolt against my leadership. 'Leadership' is never a pleasant thing, nor a thing I ambition. I have always before my mind your father'sb saying in regard to Thorbecke that 'der Eselstreiber den Eseln immer verhasst ist'.c But having once fairly embarked in an enterprise which I consider of import, I certainly, 'anxious' man as I am, do not like to give way. Mazzini, a most decided hater of freethinking and socialism, watched the progress of our society with great jealousy. His first attempt of making a tool of it and fastening upon it a programme and declaration of principles of his hatching, I had baffled.d His influence, before that time very great with the London working class, had sunk to zero. He waxed wroth, when he saw that we had founded the English Reform Leaguee and a weekly paper, The Commonwealth, to which the most advanced men of London contribute, and of which I shall send you a copy after my return to London. His anger increased, when the editors of the Rive gauche (the journal of la jeune
France? directed by Rogeard, author of the Propos de Labienus,[310]
Longuet, etc.) joined us, and when he became aware of the spread of our society on the Continent. He improved my absence, to intrigue with some English workingmen, raise their jealousies against 'German' influence, and even sent his bully, a certain Major Wolff (a German by birth) to the Council there to lodge his complaints and more or less directly to denounce me. He wanted to be acknowledged as 'the leader (I suppose par la grace de dieu*) of the continental democratical movement'. In so doing, he acted so far quite sincerely, as he utterly abhors my principles which, in his eyes, embody the most damnable 'materialism'. This whole scene was enacted behind my back, and after they had made sure that my malady would not allow me to be present. The English wavered, but, although still very weak, I rushed to the following
séance, Mr Orsini accompanying me. On my interpellation, he declared them that Mazzini had lost his influence even in Italy and was, from his antecedents and prejudices, quite disabled from understanding the new movement.[311] All the Foreign secretaries declared for me, and, if you, our Dutch secretary,[312] had been present, I hope you would have also cast your vote for your humble servant and admirer. As it was, I carried a complete
144. Marx to Laura Marx. 20 March
victory over this redoubtable adversary.[313] I think that Mazzini has now had enough of me and will make bonne mine à mauvais jeu."
I hope to receive a few lines from you. Don't forget that I am quite an insulated hermit.
Your most sincere friend
Bloch b
144
MARX TO LAURA MARX
IN LONDON
Margate, 20 March 1866 5 Lansell's Place
My dear Cacadou,c
Very good news indeed! I prefer Mrs Grach to the mother of all the Gracchi.[314] I am right glad that I have taken my lodgings in a private House, and not in an Inn or Hotel where one could hardly escape being pestered with local politics, vestry scandals, and neighbourly gossip. But still I cannot sing with the miller of the Dee, that I care for nobody and nobody cares for me.d For there is my landlady, who is deaf like a post, and her daughter, who is afflicted with chronic hoarseness, but they are very nice people, attentive, and not intruding. As to myself, I have turned into a perambulating stick, running about the greatest part of the day, airing myself, going to bed at 1Ü o'clock, reading nothing, writing less, and altogether working up my mind to that state of nothingness which Buddhaism considers the element of human bliss. However, with all that, I shall not turn out, on Thursday,e
that paragon of beauty which worthy By Bye,f in his phantastic mood, seems to expect. The toothache on the right side of the face has not yet altogether disappeared, and the same side is afflicted with an inflammation of the eye. Not that there is much to be seen of it, but that eye has taken to the vicious habit of shedding tears on its own account, without the least regard to the feelings of his master. But for this state of things, I should have my photogramme already taken, since you get here 12 cartes de visite for 3 s. 6 d. and 48 cartes for 10 sh. Mummelchena will oblige me by pacing her steps to Mr Hall and ordering him to prepare a solution of zink (he will know the composition of the drug) for my eye the which I expect to find ready on my arrival at London. This bad eye interferes with my nightrest. Otherwise, I am turning [over] a new leaf.
Withdrawing somewhat from the seaside, and roaming over the adjacent rustic district, you are painfully reminded of 'civilisation' by large boards, staring at you everywhere, headed 'Cattle Disease', and placarded over with a government proclamation, the result of the wild rush which the horned cattle gentry, lords and commoners, made at the government, on the opening of Parliament.[308]
Oh, oh King Wiswamitra What fool of an oxen art thou, That thou so much wrangle'st and suffer'st And all that for a cow. But if honest Wiswamitra, like a true Indian, tormented himself for the salvation of the cow Sabala, those English gentry, in the true style of modern martyrs, bleed the people to compensate themselves for their cows' ailings. The horn plague upon them! The horn, the horn, as discreet By Bye rings it lustily.
On Sunday, I made up my mind to walk per pedes" to Canterbury. Unhappily, I only formed this grand resolution, after having already measured for two hours the length and breadth of the piers and so forth. So I had already expended too much physical power, when I set out for the archbishop's seat or see, as you like. And from here to Canterbury are fully 16 miles. From Canterbury I returned to Margate by rail, but I had overworked myself, and could not sleep during the whole night. Limbs and loins were not tired, but the plants of my feet turned out tender hearted rogues. As to Canterbury, you know, of course, all about it, and more than I can boast, from your Eves, the trusted source of knowledge for all English Eves. (One cannot help, in your company, bad punning. But mark, Thackeray did worse, by playing upon Eves and Ewes.) Happily, I was too tired, and it was too late, to look out for the celebrated cathedral. Canterbury is an old, ugly, medieval sort of town, not mended by large modern English barracks at the one, and a dismal dry Railway Station at the other end of the oldish thing. There is no trace of that poetry about it, which you find in continental towns of the same age. The swaggering of the private soldiers and the officers in the streets, reminded me somewhat of Vaterland.(1) In the inn, where I was scantily purveyed with some slices of cold beef, I caught the newest scandal. Captain Le Merchant, it seems, had been taken up by the police on Saturday night, for systematically knocking at the doors of all the most respectable citizens. And a summons will be taken out against the Captain because of this innocent pastime. And the redoubtable Captain will have to bend down his diminished head before aldermanic majesty. This is my whole packet of 'Canterbury Tales'.^
And now, Cacadou, pay my compliments to Ellyb to whom I shall write one of those days, and whose little letter was very welcome. As to Möhmchen,c she will hear of me by the by.
That damned boy Lafargue pesters me with his Proudhonism, and will not rest, it seems, until I have administered to him a sound cudgelling of his Creole pate.
My good wishes to all.
Your master
Has Orsini still received the letter I sent him? (2)"
145. Engels to Hermann Engels. 22 March
145
ENGELS TO HERMANN ENGELS
IN BARMEN
Manchester, 22 March 1866
Dear Hermann,
Your document is with the LAWYER. Unfortunately, he was out today when I called, so I can't tell you whether he has already sent it to Liverpool, nor what progress has been made with the relevant fair copies. But I shall call again one day soon to prod him.
I am writing to you today about the statement of my account which you sent to me and which had to wait until I had a quiet day to look through, as your entries for the last half year of 1864 have been done quite differently from ours. I therefore had to go through all the stuff again from the beginning and have at last sorted it out. The items coincide with the exception of the remittances which, according to your letter of 20 July 1864, were credited direct to my account with F. Engels & Co., so I shall presumably find these items in my statement of account with F. Engels & Co. These items are:
Remittance via Apolda £ 2. 2. 2 1864, 30 June (» Munich >» 1. 2. — 1» Rieslingen » 8. 19. 6 3 July » London tot. » 287. 3. 3
I find that, according to your statements of account I am actually losing money m respect of the transferred balances debited to me here. The exact calculation of the difference for the 18 months amounts to £ 1. 14. 9, and in future I shall therefore take the liberty of sending you a statement every 6 months for I naturally have no alternative but to accept the statements of the firm here. For my convenience, I am still keeping your account here separate as well.
Please be so good as to send me a summary statement of my account with F. Engels & Co. as soon as possible, so that I can make up my private account-book. And from mid-year 1864, of course, as I have had no statement for this account from you since then at all — as far as I am aware. (If you didn't make up the account in mid-year 1864, then from the beginning of 1864.)
Business has got better again since last September; we have been fully occupied since then, at present even excessively so, and are setting up new DT-machines. Prices have improved too, and in the last half-year of 1865 we have even made enough to cover my costs from June 1864 onwards, with a little left over for myself as well; in the first year of my PARTNERSHIP we didn't make a brass farthing, you know, even without writing anything off for machinery. We must be doing splendid business now, but if cotton should drop below 18d. for MIDDLING ORLEANS owing to the greater supply, we shall lose everything again. However, I'm not expecting that to happen; I think good American cotton will, by and large, hold at approx. 19d., while Surat may admittedly fall a lot. Moreover, I think we are not getting more cotton than we need and will, by and large, stay at approx. 19d. for MIDDLING ORLEANS until about the autumn, when there may perhaps be some more speculating, which will force prices up.
I shall be writing to Mother" in a day or two, as soon as I can manage it; I received her letter last Monday and was glad to learn she is well again now. My kindest regards to her and all our brothers and sisters from
Your
Friedrich
Apropos. As you know, the capital credited to me here amounted to a little over £13,000 as far back as 30 June 1864, and since I am under no obligation to have more than £ 12,000 in the business, there is no need for you to provide cover for purchases through us; or I could send you some remittances, especially as approx. another £ 300 is due in interest at the end of June. I can also make payments to Funke on your account if you so wish; in this way, you can draw approx. £ 1,500 up to 30 June, or at once. Only please do not draw bills on us, since Gottfriedb objects, he thinks people might regard it as improper practice, the name of the firms being one and the same.
Antonc already has 4-5 patents now. There is no stopping him, every other day a new patent of his is announced in the press.
146. Marx to Engels. 24 March
146
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
Margate, 24 March 1866 5 Lansell's Place
Dear FRED,
The belated arrival of this letter will tell you how 'professionally' I am applying my time here. I am reading nothing, am writing nothing. The mere fact of having to take the arsenic three times a day obliges one to arrange one's time for meals and for strolling by the sea and over the adjacent HILLS in such a way that one finds 'no time' for anything else. And in the evening one is too tired to do anything other than sleep. The weather is, by and large, rather raw, and in particular there is often an east wind blowing here, which is SOMEWHAT CHILLING, but one soon becomes accustomed to that, too. You can tell how much I am restored from the fact that last Sunday I marched per pedes" to Canterbury (17 miles from here) in less than 4 hours. As regards company here, it does not exist, of course. I can sing with the MILLER OF THE DEE: 'I CARE FOR
NOBODY AND NOBODY CARES FOR ME.'
The day before yesterday' I had to go to London in the evening to attend a 'soirée' of my daughters. My uncled had sent them £ 5 at Christmas, which was, however, 'borrowed' from them for GENERAL PURPOSES and which they only got back when your money arrived. Thev arranged their annual 'PARTY' with it and so bombarded me with letters that I 'made' for London, as Mr Nothjung used to say. But I returned to my hermitage here the very next morning (i. e., yesterday).
Before setting off for Margate (which I did on Wednesday, 14 March6), I had to attend the consecutive evening meetings, on 12 and 13 March, firstly of the SHAREHOLDERS of The Commonwealth[290]
and secondly, on the 13th, of the CENTRAL COUNCIL, although still in a thoroughly wretched condition at the time.
On the former occasion Mr Cremer had set everything up for Eccarius to be given his marching orders, which would probably 24 1866
have happened if I had not appeared. So, the meeting only achieved the 'voluntary' resignation of Mr Cremer from the editorial board. How the matter turned out later, I do not know, since the whole thing was only SETTLED 'provisionally' for one week, and the general SHAREHOLDERS-MEETING was deferred to 19 March. But it will probably mean beati possidentes3 here too, and as a result of that meeting Eccarius was, to begin with, the possidetis.*
T h e intrigue on the CENTRAL COUNCIL was closely bound u p with the RIVALRIES and JEALOUSIES concerning the journal (Mr Howell wished to be EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and Mr Cremer ditto). Mr Le Lubez had used this to agitate against GERMAN INFLUENCE, and at the meeting of 6 March a beautifully and quietly prepared scene took place. T o wit, Major Wolff suddenly appeared and made a solemn speech in his own name and in Mazzini's and in that of the ITALIAN SOCIETY[20] against the reply to Vesinier's attacks, which Jung had sent to the Echo de Verviers in the name of the CENTRAL COUNCIL.[274]
H e made a very violent attack on J u n g and (impliciterc) myself. Odger, Howell, Cremer, and others gave vent to their longstand-ing Mazzinism. Le Lubez fed the flames and, AT ALL EVENTS, a resolution was passed which included what amounted to an amende honorable6 for Mazzini, Wolff, etc. It was a serious matter, as you can see. (Of the FOREIGNERS, there were only A FEW PRESENT, and none of them voted.) It would really be a neat trick of Mazzini's to let me bring the Association so far and then to appropriate it for himself. H e demanded that the English should recognise him as leader of the continental democrats, as though it was for the English gentlemen to appoint leaders for us\
On Saturday (10 March) the FOREIGN SECRETARIES of the Association gathered at my house to hold a council of war (Dupont, Jung, Longuet, Lafargue, Bobczyriski). It was resolved that, whatever happened, I was to attend the COUNCIL on Tuesday (13th) and protest against the PROCEEDINGS in the name of all the FOREIGN-SECRETARIES. T h e PROCEEDINGS were irregular, you see, as Wolff is n o longer a MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL, therefore n o resolution on a matter in which he was personally implicated ought to be passed in his presence. Furthermore, I was to explain Mazzini's position vis-à-vis both our Association and the CONTINENTAL WORKINGMENS PARTIES, etc. Finally, the French were to bring Cesare Orsini (who is BY THE BY a personal friend of Mazzini) along to give EVIDENCE on Mazzini, Wolff and the STATE OF SOCIALISM' in Italy.
147. Engels to Marx. 27 March
The affair went off better than I had ever expected [3 1 3]; though the English element was unfortunately not well represented (on account of the bloody Reform League [1 5 5]). I gave that Lubez a thorough dressing down. In any case, it has been made clear to the English (in fact only a minority is meant here, too) that the whole CONTINENTAL ELEMENT stands behind me as one man and that here it is by no means, as Mr Lubez had insinuated, a case of GERMAN INFLUENCE. Lubez had sought to put it to them that as LEADER of the ENGLISH ELEMENT on the COUNCIL, I was holding DOWN the other CONTINENTAL ELEMENTS; the English gentlemen are, on the contrary, now persuaded that by means of the CONTINENTAL ELEMENT I have got them entirely under my thumb, should they kick over the traces. More about that next time.
Before coming here, I did, of course, pay off the most pressing DEBTS at home, as otherwise I should not have had a moment's peace of mind. If you can send me a little bit more at the end of this month, I would appreciate it. Meanwhile, the power of attorney from the C a p e (1) will be here at last, and thus something will at least be flowing into the coffers, even if it is not very much.
MY COMPLIMENTS TO MRS LIZZY.b
Your
K. M.
147
ENGELS T O MARX
IN MARGATE
Manchester, 27 March 1866
Dear Moor,
I had just made u p my mind to write you a letter of congratulations on what I inferred from your silence to be your
148. Marx to Engels. 2 April
conscientious abstinence from work, when your letter arrived. It reassured me not a little, as I was beginning to suspect that another carbuncle might be the reason for your obstinate silence. You must keep taking plenty of exercise and continue visiting the archbishop in Canterbury per pedes," that is the sure way to eradicate it once and for all. In this case, and in others, too, the most important thing is to endure the boredom of the seaside for long enough; if you can, you should stay there for the whole of April, so that the trouble can be completely cured.
Old Hill has just come and interrupted me. So I must break off for today. The £10 encl.
E/T 96963, Manchester, 20 January 1865.
Your
F. Engels
148
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
Margate, 2 April 1866 5 Lansell's Place
Dear FRED,
D'abord? the £10 received with kindest thanks. In my absence there has been a changement de décoration,11 or rather, de direction on The Commonwealth which will be realised next week.[290] Odger, EDITOR; FOX, SUBEDITOR; the 'SON OF TOIL"* contracted to supply an article a week for 10s.; Cremer OUT OF PLACE; has also tendered his resignation as GENERAL SECRETARY of the 'INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION. Taken as a whole, I have no objection to the CHANGE. Eccarius could hardly have (or at least ought not to have) imagined that he would be allowed to retain nominal control 2 1866
from the moment the paper established itself. I warned him to no avail. It was a 'political' error on my part to have given way to his entreaties and proposed him by letter for his now defunct job. If I had not been ill, he would have knocked on the door in vain. I knew in advance that I would find the affair coming home to roost. Avoidance of any appearance of pursuing personal interests or abusing personal influence for clandestine purposes, and good understanding with the English must, of course, be more important to us than satisfying Eccarius' more or less justified ambition.
People of a dry disposition like Eccarius also have a certain dry egoism, which easily leads them astray. When the REFORM LEAGUE decided on the big MEETING in St Martin's Hall,[267] the League's COUNCIL nominated him as one of the PUBLIC SPEAKERS. The fellows in Potter's clique objected to him as a FOREIGNER. I warned him expressly not to accept his 'BRIEF'. However, he thought he had got over all his troubles and flattered himself with the important part in the METROPOLITAN MOVEMENT. And he was A DEAD FAILURE. The poor fellow has, of course, lived a life of DISAPPOINTMENTS, and the honorary positions the English SPONTANEOUSLY allowed him, as Vice-President of the 'INTERNATIONAL', etc., deceived him to the point where he now believed he could suddenly make up for the whole of his past life. If he had followed me, operated slowly, maintained a modest posture, everything would be in the best of order. If I even went so far as to muddy myself for his sake, despite his lack of discipline and his wilful behaviour, I was moved to do so particularly by the consideration that he has always worked with us and never reaped the fruits of it. But one always makes BLUNDERS if one allows oneself to be influenced by suchlike considerations.
As regards the newspaper itself,(1) the danger — arising from lack of funds — lies in the growing encroachments and dominance of the Nonconformist clique.b
The accursed traditional nature of all English movements is manifesting itself again in the REFORM-MOVEMENT. The same 'INSTALMENTS' which but a few weeks ago were rejected with the utmost indignation by the people's party — they had even refused Bright's ultimatum of HOUSEHOLD SUFFRAGE — are now treated as a prize worthy to be fought for. And why? Because the Tories are screaming blue murder.31j These fellows lack the METTLE of the old Chartists.
2 1866
What d o you think of the Austro-Prussian troubles[316]? I see n o continental papers at all. However, it is at least clear to me that Russia is behind the Prussians and that the Austrians, who know this, are nolens volens" consoling themselves with French support. A pretty game these heads of state are playing! It is the eternal dilemma the German philistine confronts us with at every turn. For Bonaparte, real CIVIL WAR IN GERMANY would be a true GODSEND.
Admittedly, there is still always the possibility that one fine day the affair will simply end with the worthy Bismarck's dismissal. But since Düppel, [2 7] 'William the Conqueror' b believes his 'glorious armies' are invincible, a n d a second 01mütz<: must appear to be a risk even to him, in view of the INTERNAI, CONFLICT.317
T h e weather has been very bad here for several days, as if it had been made especially to order for the COCKNEYS who have invaded this place for the Easter holiday.
For how long must I take the arsenic? MY COMPLIMENTS TO MRS BURNS.
Your
K. M.
My friend Kaub has written to me from Paris that a certain M. Rebour has found a means to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, using a method which would entail the expenditure of 2 sous per day FOR A FIRE TO MELT IRON WITH. He is, however, keeping the matter secret for the time being still, as on a previous occasion a discovery had been stolen from him and patented in London. Qui vivra verra? You know how often we have both dreamed of a cheap way of making fire from water.
149. Engels to Marx. 2 April
149
ENGELS TO MARX
IN MARGATE
Manchester, 2 April 1866 Dear Moor,
I hope you have received the £10 which I sent to you in Margate. I was in Wales over the holiday and have at last got round to writing to you today.
Orsini called on me, but unfortunately I could do nothing for him; I have no connections of any kind in New York any more, and it is OUT OF THE QUESTION to find anyone here to run the guano DODGE with him and advance the funds for it. He is a very nice fellow.
Polish article No. 3 a will be done tomorrow evening, if nothing interferes. I shall send it direct to Eccarius, CARE OF EDITOR OF The Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the proof-reading is so abysmal, and it's about time that they stopped reprinting the LEADERS from The Nonconformist every week. It really is sheer impudence on Miall's part to pass the newspaper off so openly as a mere appendix of The Nonconformist.
What do you say to Bismarck? It almost looks now as if he is pushing for war and is thereby offering Louis Bonaparte a splendid opportunity to acquire a piece of the left bank of the Rhine without any effort and thus set himself up à vie.h Even though all those who bear any responsibility for this war — if it comes to that — deserve hanging, and I would with equal impartiality gladly extend that to the Austrians as well, yet I would most of ali like to see the Prussians soundly thrashed. Then there are 2 possibilities: 1. the Austrians will dictate the peace in Berlin within a fortnight, and direct intervention from abroad will thereby be avoided, but at the same time the present regime in Berlin will be made impossible, and there will be another movement which will disavow the specific nature of the Prussian regime right from the outset; or 2. there will be a sudden change in Berlin before the Austrians arrive, in which case the new movement will also get under way.
My opinion of the military situation is that the two armies are more or less evenly matched, and that the battles will prove very
150. Engels to Marx. 6 April
bloody. In any case, however, Benedek is a better general than Prince Frederick Charles, and unless Francis Joseph assists Benedek or Frederick Charles has some very good and influential staff officers, I believe the Prussians are in for a drubbing. Alone the braggery after Düppel[27] indicates that another Jena is possible.[203]
If the first battle ends in a decisive defeat for the Prussians, there will be nothing to stop the Austrians advancing on Berlin. If Prussia wins, she has not the power to launch and sustain an offensive to Vienna across the Danube, let alone to Pest and beyond. Austria is quite capable of imposing a peace on Prussia SINGLE-HANDED, although Prussia cannot do so on Austria. Every Prussian success would thus be an encouragement to Bonaparte to intervene. Furthermore, both the German swine will now already be seeking to outbid each other with offers of German territory to the third, French, swine.
Your
F. E.
150
ENGELS TO MARX
IN MARGATE
Manchester, 6 April 1866
Dear Moor,
That the Russians are behind the Prussians at once struck me as very probable, too. The mere fact that the Austrian paper guilder is almost at par again and will thus have to be disturbed again, aroused suspicion, but the simultaneous Cuza affair[318] even more so, and ce cher (1) Bismarck would not have put out all his efforts if he did not have the Russians behind him. It is possible that things are so far committed already that neither Bismarck nor that old jackass William have a say in the matter any more and that it depends entirely on the whim of the St Petersburgers whether there shall be war or peace. How clumsily this Bismarck is acting, incidentally. It is too absurd how he tries to represent the poor Austrians as the attacking party. Even more splendid, however, is the fact that the fellow is seriously thinking of convening a German parliament on 1 June to reform the federal constitution. This is to be a remedy against the smaller states: he—lui Bismarck"—is appealing to the people instead of to the governments. That even called forth universal derisive laughter from the German philistines.[316]
After the upheaval that has occurred on The Commonwealth,(2)' by the way, I was no longer able to get the said articlesb to the editors on time, as they would have had to take the roundabout route via Margate, so I am sending them to you for the next number. I found the relevant data on the emancipation of the Russian serfs in an article by Mazade, Revue des II Mondes.c
And how is your health now? You haven't had any further carbuncles or small furuncles? And how are you otherwise, are you building yourself up? Are you still visiting old 'Cantuar"" per pedesc? The arsenic must be taken for at least 3 months, and will not do you the slightest harm anyway.
Otherwise, there is nothing new here except for a foul east wind and clouds of dust.
How much longer are you thinking of staying in Margate? At least until the end of this month, I hope?
Reform movement — general admission of general indolence. What a tiny INSTALMENT! 31D
Your
F. E.
151. Marx to Engels. 6 April
151
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
Margate, 6 April 1866 5 Lansell's Place
DEAR FRED,
I have been greatly restored here, and not the smallest sign of a return of the atrocious carbuncles. The spot where the last and most malignant one was still feels a little tender. Perhaps it healed too quickly and an atom of pus is still lurking beneath the healed skin. However, if that were so, the warm sea bathes and the rough towel that I dry myself with would no doubt have dissipated the foul matter; and indeed in the last two days this vestige of the wound seems to be disappearing altogether. The only drawback is a recurrence here of rheumatic pains in my right shoulder, which is seriously disturbing my sleep. I have now been here for nearly 4 weeks and have lived for my health's sake alone. It is time to put a stop to that soon.
Our letters crossed, so that you have answered mine. You do not mention the possibility of Italy creating a diversion for Prussia's benefit.
There can be no shadow of doubt that Russia is behind the Prussians, although she is allowing Mr Bonaparte to act as arbiter on the stage. One must not lose sight of the fact (to use a Hegelian turn of phrase) that the DANUBIAN MINE[318] WAS SPRUNG at the very moment that Bismarck made his démarche.[316]
Even granted, which is probable, that the Prussian curs withdraw with their tails between their legs, it remains clear, and must become clear even to the German philistines, that unless there is a revolution in Germany, the Hohenzollern and Habsburg curs will throw our country back for another 50-100 years by civil (dynastic) war.
I must tell you frankly that the 'INTERNATIONAL' is in a sorry state, particularly since the impatience of the French has led to the congress being fixed for the end of May.[286]
THE FACT IS THIS, that the English LEADERS in London, now that we have given them a platform (to which must be added the inability of any Englishman to do two things at once), are very cool within our MOVEMENT proper. My absence for almost 3 months has done
152. Engels to Hermann Engels. 6 April
untold harm. What is to be done? In France, Belgium, Switzerland (and here and there in Germany, and even sporadical-ly in America) the Association has made great and sustained progress. In England, the reform movement, which we brought into being, has almost KILLED us. That would be of no consequence, if the Geneva Congress had not been announced for the end of May, and if the Parisians, for whom this movement is the sole possibility, had not, through their own paper Le Congrès, made it almost impossible to prorogue the congress.[319] The English would soon see the rottenness of the REFORM MOVEMENT, as it now is. After my return the threat of flirtation with the Potter-clique, etc., would soon put everything back on the right lines. But THERE IS NO TIME. For the English even the FAILURE of the congress is a trifle. But for us? A fiasco of European dimensions!! I really do see scarcely a way out. The English have neglected to do anything which might give the congress any kind of respectable form. Que faire!* Do you think I should go to Paris to put to the people there how impossible the congress now is? Answer soon. The only possible way out I can see is by agreement with the Parisians. On the other hand, I know that their position itself is at stake if the congress does not take place. Que faire! Mr
Vésinier has challenged our Parisians. They are to go to Belgium to shoot it out with him. L'imbécile. As TO Orsini, I knew that there was nothing you could do. But I could not refuse him the introduction to you.b
Your
K. M.
Published first time
F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, , . . . . . r „ r îqia Published in English in lull lor the
152
ENGELS TO HERMANN ENGELS
IN BARMEN
Manchester, 6 April 1866 Dear Hermann,
Best thanks for your statement of account for 27 March, which appears to be in order by and large. The only thing is, it is hard to check the interest if it is not given in detail as in other statements, and one just has to take the 'interest-account' at its word. But then, on 31 December 1865, you credit me with the transfer of 2,112,21.8 talers from Ermen & Engels, Barmen, whilst according to E. & E., Barmen's statement, the same transfer amounts to £316.18.2 and à 6I20 makes 2,169.1.8 talers. I can make no sense of that.
It is rather awkward that you make up your accounts on 31 December, whereas we do so on 30 June. I shall therefore only send you a statement once, on 31 December, which will thus never coincide with yours, but in the end it will make no odds.
To keep our entries clear, I would be glad if you would enter all business items from E. & E. under E. & E., Barmen, and all private items under F. Engels & Co.
I passed the information on the agent Brown straight on to Fr. Boelling; Karth wrote to us about a different matter.
I do not advise you to obtain your SEWINGS through us as a rule, G. Ermen will always try to palm off his yarn from Pendlebury on you, and that would surely not always be in your interest. Besides, he would at once claim payment of 2% commission from you as the business expands. But if you can make use of his yarn (and why not, since we can use it?), you had best apply to us. I am today posting you a sample of No. 16, of which he has 120 BALES [at] 10 pounds, 7 LEAS in stock, and would take 2 [s.] [1]/[2] d. per No. 16, perhaps even less. You can also obtain the same yarn from the broker F. A. Schmits. Fine Nos. and COPS, on the other hand, in which G. Ermen has no interest we can always supply you with.
How much does the hock cost? That is what really matters. And how much of it is there? You should have sent 3 dozen bottles straightaway, instead of 3.
I shall ask around about the PONIES. Good, strong COBS, however, are at the moment much sought after here, and expensive, and bargains — a good pair in one lot — not easily come by.
You don't think there'll be war either? It would be a terrible business if it came to that, and there is no telling where it would end. Recently, when the affair first started, I dreamed that I had got mixed up with an enormously large army somewhere on the Mosel. They were volunteers of some description, all manner of fellows dashing about full of self-importance, and now and again someone would shout, 'We're surrounded!'—at which they all took to their heels. At length, I found my way into the headquarters and encountered Peter and Gottfried Ermen there as GENERALS en chef, and Anton(1) as chief-of-staff. Now I asked him a few questions, but received such bizarre replies that I finally asked him whether he did actually have maps of the area where he was? At which he looked down at me from a great height and said, 'Maps? We do everything here much better without maps.' When I tried to explain to him that he really could not manage without maps, nor even find quarters for his men, etc., he answered, 'If absolutely necessary, we do have some maps', and, with a look of triumph, he pulled a map of a quite different area, the other side of Aachen and Maastricht, out of his pocket. Don't imagine I have just made this up as a bad joke, that is literally how it happened. Kindest regards to Motherb—I'll write to her one of these days — and to all our brothers and sisters.
Your
Friedrich
153. Marx to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 6 April
My dear Miller,c
You see from the address that I have been banished to the seaside by my medical adviser.[307]
After having "received your last letter, and some letters on the part of our Berlin friends,(1) my sickness assumed a really dangerous character. For some time it was very doubtful whether or not that decomposition of the blood, under which I labour, should get the better of me. It was only towards the middle of March that I was bodily enabled to remove myself to this place. I am now restored, and shall very soon return to London. But again a quarter of a year has been lost!
Write me immediately under my London address. After my return, I shall regularly send you The Commonwealth (under which altered title The Workman's Advocate is now published).[290] It is only since a few weeks that it has been registered for Transmission for abroad. Eccarius is no longer the editor, but only a contributor. It was to be foreseen, that so soon as the paper should get some sort of standing, a Foreigner would not be allowed to retain the nominal leadership/
Write me
1) about the state of 'our' movement in Germany, 2) about the state of German politics.
Yours truly
K. M. My best compliments to Madame.b
Briefwechsel mit Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels, The Hague, 1963
154. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 6 April[66]
Dear Friend,
I shall return to London from here the day after tomorrow. My doctor banished me to this seaside place, where I am indeed much recovered. But another two months and more — February, March and half of April have thus been entirely lost to me again, and the completion of my bookc put back once more! It is enough to drive one out of one's mind.
I was suffering from CARBUNCLES, not furuncles. It was a dangerous business this time. You are, of course, right that 'dietetic' sins lay behind it. I am too accustomed to working at night, studying by day and writing by night. That, together with all manner of worries, private and public, and — whenever I am immersed in work — neglect of regular diet, exercise, etc., is quite enough to upset the blood.
I received Mr Menke's contribution of 10 talers for the 'International' with your letter.(1) I have not got the addresses of my French friends in Paris here. However, if Mr Menke approaches my friend K. Kaub (33, Rue des trois Couronnes du Temple), the latter can introduce him to V. Schily (German) and Tolain, Fribourg, etc., the people on the Paris Committee.
The news from Germany is rather depressing.[316] Prussia is being egged on by Russia (and Bonaparte), Austria by the latter (following on rather reluctantly, in self-defence). Will our philistines at last realise that, unless there is a revolution to remove the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns (it being superfluous to mention the lesser dung-beetles), another Thirty Years' War[320] and another partition of Germany are ultimately inevitable!
A movement on the part of the Italians might help Prussia. But just considering Austria and Prussia on their own, the latter would almost certainly be at a disadvantage, for all their bragging about Düppel.[27] At all events, Benedek is a better General than Prince Frederick Charles. Austria might well impose a peace on Prussia SINGLE-HANDED, but Prussia cannot do so on Austria. Any Prussian success would be an encouragement to Bonaparte to interfere.
Bismarck may perhaps have already drawn in his horns again as I write these lines to you. But that, too, would only delay the conflict. Such a delay is probable in my opinion.
This turmoil in Germany is an extraordinary piece of luck for Bonaparte. His position is completely undermined. But war would give him a new lease of life.
Write to me soon, and in particular about the situation in Germany.
Yours
K. M.
155. Engels to Marx. 10 April
155
ENGELS TO MARX
IN MARGATE
Manchester, 10 April 1866
Dear Moor,
To all appearances, the Russians want war, their purpose seeming to be restoration of Poland under Russian rule and possibly annexation of Moldavia. The Kölnische Zeitung, which is, of course, in mortal fear of war, has sent J. von Wickede, its military man, to Bohemia, to inspect what is claimed to be Austria's state of armament. The fellow arrives — on 3 April, that is 14 days after Bismarck's note[316]—and everywhere finds things on a profoundly pacific footing, except that some Bohemian regiments have been transferred to their western districts, so that they can put themselves on a war footing more quickly. No soldiers recalled from leave, no fortress armed. Nothing.(1) The whole disgraceful affair thus deliberately provoked by Bismarck.
Furthermore: the Russians are concentrating troops on the Austrian and on the Prussian frontier with Poland, and the soldiers are saying quite openly that those who are positioned on the Prussian frontier will shortly occupy Posen as soon as the Prussian troops take the field against the Austrians. Apart from the fact that the Russians would thereby secure the rest of Prussian Poland for themselves immediately, their mission will also be to suppress any revolutionary movements in Berlin. However, that would in all probability be a miscalculation and, at any rate, disqualify the Hohenzollerns for the future.
Finally, today's LEADER in The Times which comes down stupidly, mendaciously, woodenly but decisively on Prussia's side and represents Austria as the attacking party. That was written to order.b
In view of all this, war seems to me certain; the situation within Germany also makes it inevitable, following the new Austrian note appealing to the Confederation, as well as Monsieur Bismarck's proposal regarding a German parliament[321]—what a dunderhead the fellow must be to believe that that would assist him even in the very slightest! The Austrian note seems to be based on the assumption that the storm will break after all. Otherwise they would at least have left the back-door open to facilitate the Prussians' retreat through Bismarck's resignation. But the moment that they appeal to the Confederation, that's an end to it; another ministry in Prussia would not submit to a Confederation majority either.
Bonaparte will probably keep quiet, at least for the time being; Bismarck has already offered him Saarbrücken, etc., and, if need be, he would also make him a present of the Bavarian Palatinate. If he sees the Russians committed on the Prussian side, he won't risk anything rash.
If the storm really does break, for the first time in history the course of events will depend on the attitude taken by Berlin. If the Berliners hit out at the right time, things may turn out well — but who can rely on them?
As regards the congress of the International, I don't properly see how you can hope to avoid it.b Nor do I see how a further postponement would improve things much. Après tout,c any demonstration of that kind would in a certain sense — at least as far as we ourselves are concerned — always be a fiasco. But in full view of Europe? I believe that could still be avoided even now. After all, the Germans with their polyglot capacities would have the whole thing under their control, and it is precisely the Germans who are on our side. Whether the congress decides anything useful is a secondary matter, as long as all scandal can be avoided; and that surely will now be the case. General resolutions of a theoretical kind or referring to international support for strikes, etc., can surely be passed without any danger. Nevertheless, you must know that better than I, I cannot really judge of it from here. Meanwhile, I would definitely not go to Paris about it. You have no one to protect you, and the police will have no qualms about striking — emissary from a public workers' association with distinctly revolutionary tendencies, which can easily be used to conceal other clandestine matters—cela suffit" The whole business is just not worth the risk.
You would do much better to stay in Margate until the last scar is no longer in the slightest degree susceptible, and do plenty of walking in the fresh air. Who knows how soon you will once more have need of a stout constitution. The atmosphere is highly electric, and we shall perhaps soon be in the midst of the storm
156. Engels to Marx. 13 April
again; that will no doubt also help resolve the difficulty with the congress.
I shall be letting you have a bit of money as soon as I can. I shall also try and see Gumpert and ask him about terminating the sea-cure and what you should do afterwards about the arsenic.
Your
F. E.
156
ENGELS TO MARX[101]
IN MARGATE
[Manchester,] 13 April 1866 Dear Moor,
As I do not exactly know whether you are in Margate at the moment, I am today sending your wife
E/R 13430, Manchester, 21 January 1865 £10 E/P 43331, Manchester, 20 January 1865 £10-£20 and am telling her that I have informed you of it.
So, Bismarck has executed his suffrage universel coup,[321] even though without his Lassalle. It would appear that, after some show of reluctance, the German bourgeois will go along with it, for Bonapartism really is the true religion of the modern bourgeoisie. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the bourgeoisie does not possess the qualities required to rule directly itself, and that therefore, unless there is an oligarchy as here in England capable of taking over, for good pay, the management of state and society in the interest of the bourgeoisie, a Bonapartist semi-dictatorship is the normal form; it promotes the great material interests of the bourgeoisie even against the bourgeoisie, but allows it no share in the government itself. Conversely, this dictatorship itself is in turn compelled unwillingly to adopt these material interests of the bourgeoisie. So, now we have Monsieur Bismarck adopting the programme of the National Association.[152] Its execution is admittedly quite another matter, but Bismarck will scarcely be baulked by the German bourgeois. A German, who has just returned from there, reports that he has already encountered many who have nibbled at this bait; according to Reuter (vide[3]
below), the people in Karlsruhe have approved of the matter, and the Kölnische Zeitung's unbounded embarrassment over the affair is a clear indication of a forthcoming change of course.
That Bismarck has direct agreements with the Russians, however, is once more proved firstly by the fact that not only The Times but Reuter, too, is beginning to lie on Prussia's behalf, in complete contrast to their usual custom. There is a method in the mistranslations with which the telegrams are now infested more than ever. Until a short while ago, against Prussia. Now against Austria. Reuter telegraphs: Austria would only go along with the plan if all the Austrian provinces (that is, including the non-German ones) were represented.b In the German original it merely says: conditional upon the regions of Austria being represented, too.—Further: according to the Bromberger Zeitung and the Ostsee-Zeitung (the latter is a Russian organ), the Russians are continuing to gather more troops in the south-western provinces, from the Kingdom of Poland[322] to the Prut, doing so very slowly and unobtrusively; the soldiers are all expecting to move with Prussia against Austria, and those on the Warta repeat that their role is to occupy Posen so that the Prussians there can march away.
The Russians can, incidentally, leave Schleswig-Holstein to the Prussians for the time being, as the Peace of Vienna and the annexation have, after all, saved the main issue for them: the Treaty of London and thereby the succession in Denmark[323] If they have the Sound,c what does Kiel signify to them?
At all events, your best course is to stay in Margate until you no longer feel anything at all in the affected part, and you are in general convinced of a marked turn for the better.
Write soon.
Your
F. E. First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen Printed according to the original F. Eneeb und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, „ , ,. , , . _ . . . . r „ r , iqia Published in English in full for the first time
157. Marx to Engels. 23 April
157
MARX TO ENGELS[324]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 23 April 1866
Dear FRED,
You will have had little difficulty in explaining my long silence as arising from the mental condition that is generated by more than 2 weeks of incessant toothache and rheumatism. However, a turning-point appears to have been reached today.
As the pain of the rheumatism, which was particularly acute at night, greatly interfered with my sleep and my whole domestic routine — as a consequence of which I was several times attacked by vomiting — I thought it wise to stop, or suspend, the arsenic. But I shall continue with it again now (if a turning-point has really been reached). Nor is there the slightest sign of any furuncular or carbuncular bother, and I have not the slightest doubt that once I am over these INCIDENTS, which are connected more with the weather, I shall be fully restored. But indeed it is high time as I have already lost so much time.
With the 'INTERNATIONAL the situation is as follows: since my return[307] discipline has by and large been re-established. The successful intervention of the 'INTERNATIONAL' in the tailors' strike (by means of letters from the secretaries for France, Belgium, etc.) has also created a sensation among the TRADES UNIONS here.[325] With respect to the Geneva Congress, I have resolved to do all that I can here to promote its success, but not to attend it in person. I thereby evade all personal responsibility for its conduct.(1)
As far as The Commonwealth is concerned, the ENCROACHMENTS of Miall et Co. would be more tolerable if they were at least founded on the pretext of financial assistance really worthy of mention. But the fellows are exceedingly liberal with good advice and petty criticisms, and exceedingly parsimonious with CASH, SO that the existence of the paper is assured only from one week to the next. Its readership is spreading week by week, but a PENNY PAPER, be it ever so successful, needs to be funded for at least a year ahead. To make it SELF-SUPPORTING in a shorter space of time is QUITE OUT OF THE QUESTION. If the paper is for the moment no worse than it is,
158. Engels to Marx. 1 May
then that is thanks to Fox alone, who has to fight a continuing battle.
For the present, they do not seem to be coming to blows in the Fatherland after all. Prussian braggadocio is slow indeed to draw the sword! Whatever the outcome, we shall have the pleasure of a Prussian disgrace before both a domestic and foreign audience. For all that, it still seems uncertain whether war might not break out one fine morning. The Russians want war (although they have indeed already gained and are continuing to gain much merely from the bickering and bellicose threats in Germany), and for Bonaparte it would be a GODSEND. At all events, Mr Bismarck has set 'the movement' going again in Germany.
The phase of the Civil War" over, only now have the UNITED STATES really entered the revolutionary phase, and the European WISEACRES who believe in the omnipotence of Mr Johnson will soon be disappointed.
In England, the Tories and Palmerstonian Whigs really deserve thanks for frustrating Russell's quiet SETTLEMENT.[326] At one of the latest sittings, Mr Gladstone himself, expressed his 'melancholy' conviction that now, quite contrary to his benevolent expectations, a 'long series of struggles' was imminent.
What do you say to the '8th' sage of the world — Mi//?a
Best regards to MRS Lizzy.b
Tout à vousc
K. M.
158
ENGELS TO MARX[26]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 1 May 1866 Dear Moor,
I hope you are happily over your rheumatism and faceache and are once more sitting diligently over the bookd How is it coming on, and when will the first volume be ready? By the by, you must go on with the arsenic, it should be taken for at least 3 months and is quite unconnected with the rheumatism, etc. The liver troubles may have been a factor contributing to the carbuncles, by disturbing the digestion or blood-formation, and, for that very reason, you will also have to go on taking several hours continuous exercise regularly each day and keep off working at night, so that everything can return to normal. Where the tendency to hyperaemia of the liver has established itself in such a classic and systematic form as in your case, it does not, of course, just vanish again all at once.
It's good that you have no more worries about the congress and the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION. Apropos, a shipload of 57 German tailors has been imported to Edinburgh TO PUT DOWN A STRIKE and 2 more loads are expected. Probably from Hamburg. Can you not discover the details in Edinburgh and put a stop to this, too?[327]
Bismarck wants war à tout prix? and after he failed in Bohemia, he seems likely to succeed in Italy.[328] I hope that, if he pulls it off, the Berliners will hit out. If they proclaim a republic there, the whole of Europe can be overturned in 14 days. But, but, will they? How do our connections there stand?
Have you seen how little Louis Blanc, as a good démocrate impérial, is now declaring in the Temps that, if Prussia absorbs the smaller German states, France must have at least the left bank of the Rhine.*5 There's a real revolutionary for you.
In order to incite my ancient rage somewhat, in the last few days I have been reading the book by Röckel, the 49er imprisoned in Dresden, about his treatment in gaol.c These infamies perpetrated by the Saxons exceed everything that I have ever come across. There will be a harsh reckoning to be had with a large number of villains. Such brutality was quite unknown in the old days before '48, and the Prussian fortresses of that time seem like paradise in comparison.
These Adullamites really are tremendous jackasses to put up such resistance to this pauvred REFORM BILL, the most conservative thing that has ever been done here.[326] However, quern deus vult perdere,c etc.
I already sent my third article on Poland' to The Commonwealth 3 weeks ago and asked for it to be returned if it should be too late for that week. I then received a reply from Fox a week later that it could not appear until the forthcoming issue, returning the article at the same time. Sent it off again on Wednesday, but too late. You were still in Margate at that time. I will send the following Nos. to you again if time does not make immediate, direct submission necessary.
Kind regards to your wife and the girls.
Your
F. E.
159. Marx to Wilhelm Liebknecht. 4 May
My dear Friend,
As I am at this moment, after so long an interruption of work,b
very busily engaged in making up for lost time, you will excuse me for writing this time only a few lines.
I shall send you to-day the last number of The Commonwealth. The financial position of the paper is such that it struggles from week to week and is altogether disabled from paying one farthing for Foreign Correspondence. Its circulation is increasing, but you know that a penny paper wants at least 20,000 subscribers, and cannot even then make the two ends meet without a goodly number of advertisements. The Commonwealth is of too recent an origin to come up to those requisites.
The Congress at Geneva has been postponed for the 3d of September next.[286] The society is rapidly spreading, particularly in France. Italian societies have also recently joined.c The propagan-
160. Engels to Marx. 9 May
da in London has taken a new start, principally due to the circumstance that the successful strikes of the London tailors and wireworkers were due to our intervention which prevented the import of workingmen from France, Switzerland, Belgium, which had been contemplated by the masters. This proof of its immediate practical importance has struck the practical English mind.[329]
For the same purpose you find, on the last page of this letter, an 'avis'(1) to the German tailors which I call upon you to have inserted in such German papers as you have access to.[327] At the same time you will oblige me by sending me a copy or two of some papers in which the 'avis' will have been inserted, telling me at the same time the names of all other papers that should have reprinted it. Kugelmann might also be useful for this purpose.
My best compliments to Mrs. Liebknecht.b' I feel exceedingly thankful for her friendly interest in my welfare.
Yours fraternally
A. Williams(2)
160
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 9 May 1866 Dear Moor,
I am becoming concerned at your silence, I almost fear your health is not what it should be. You have not got carbuncles again?
What is this strange business of Cohen the blind,d who cannot hit the tall Bismarck with five shots and gets himself arrested by
161. Marx to Engels. 10 May
him into the bargain. He could have done Bismarck no greater favour.[330]
IT STRIKES ME that the Prussians are 14 days behind the Austrians with their mobilisation and cannot attack before the end of this inst. If the Austrians take advantage of thisv they may win a big battle and be in Berlin before the Prussians have concentrated.
Your
F. E.
161
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 May 1866
Dear FRED,
No CARBUNCLES WHATEVER! But the accursed rheumatism and toothache have tormented me cruelly, until the former at last seems to be yielding to embrocation with pure alcohol. I must tell you candidly as well that my mind still feels somewhat weak and my capacity for work is only returning very gradually. Perhaps that can be attributed to the interruption in the arsenic treatment, which I started again after your last letter.
Cohen[38]" was a very good lad (although not particularly gifted) for whom I have a special regard as he was an old friend of my Musch.a Freiligrath naturally dashed straight to Blind yesterday and came to us from him. I was not at home. Freiligrath's chief lament was the bad name Blind was giving him and others (nominal contributors to the Eidgenosse* whose symbol is a hand holding a dagger with the motto 'haec manus tyrannis',c etc.). He said he had not visited him for 9 months and that the affair was not even 'excusable'. In short, he was in fact only upset about the possible impression the affair might make on the London philistines. By the by, our trickster from Baden duped him nicely again. He played the broken man and gave his friend Freiligrath no inkling that in the first throes of grief he had the presence of mind to exploit the tragic incident for some good advertising for himself and family in the various London papers. ALWAYS AN EYE TO BUSINESS. His wife(1) is naturally inconsolable, and the funny thing about the affair is that Blind has by his idiotic regicidal blether sacrificed not his own son, but old Cohen's Isaac,"b on the altar of freedom.
In consequence of their sad experiences in 1859[331] the Austrians are in the accursed situation of being scarcely capable of grasping the favourable moment, and although they have been forcibly presented with the initiative, they cannot seize it, or at least they will hesitate greatly before doing so. OF COURSE, European 'PUBLIC OPINION' benefits them not a tittle and requires something silly of them. These same liberal jackasses, who are now generally admitting that Austria is the challenged party and that there is a systematic CONSPIRACY against her, would tomorrow (the ENGLISH LORDS included) scream with one voice if Austria were to strike the first blow and did not wait quietly for her enemies to give the signal.
Repugnant though Bonaparte is to me, his coup in Auxerre did uncommonly amuse me.[332] That old jackass Thiers and the chiens savants" of the Corps législatif,c who applauded him, fancied they would be allowed to play with Louis-Philippism unpunished! Les imbéciles!
The Russians as always are playing their part to a T. Having encouraged their worthy Prussians, they enter on the scene as men of peace and arbiters of Europe, but were, at the same time, canny enough to inform Mr Bonaparte that Poland could not, of course, be on the agenda at any congress, in short, that Russia was entitled to meddle in European, but not Europe in Russian affairs.
Following upon the importation of German and Danish tailors to Edinburgh, we have 1. sent a German and a Daned (both tailors themselves) to Edinburgh, and they have already put an end to the understanding between IMPORTERS and IMPORTED; 2. I have put out a warning in the name of the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION to the
162. Engels to Marx. 16 May
German tailors in Germany.3 The affair has been extraordinarily useful to us in London.[327]
A very disagreeable matter for me was the necessity of paying a lump sum of £25 for school fees. This money, for 3 quarters, could no longer be put off as Jenny and Laura are leaving the school, the latter taking no lessons at all, and the former only one music lesson a week now outside school. (Baumer has resigned from the school, you know.)
The Commonwealth is rapidly going from strength to strength and would certainly be PAYING within the space of a year. But it is probable that we shall soon have to suspend it for lack of money.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
162
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 16 May 1866
Dear Moor,
The Freiligrath affair is very amusing and very gratifying. That's what comes of him attaching himself to the respectable people among the émigrés and renouncing the 'party'. As regards Blind, the fitting cry in respect of his: manus haec inimica tyrranis" should be that children ought not to play with guns. It is incidentally quite clear from the affair that Bismarck wears an armoured shirt.[330] The shots must all have hit him, the last 3 are admitted to have been direct hits, and as the revolver was so designed that it could not be fired in contact with the target, there is just no other possibility. They make these things very fine and yet strong nowadays. His friend Bonaparte will no doubt have supplied him with one and recommended it to him.
Monsieur Bismarck has obviously been gravely disappointed in the smaller states, hincR the threat of an imperial constitution and Bennigsen. There must also have been some financial mishaps. But can one conceive of anything more comical than that the same William, who as top general in the year 1849 bore the imperial constitution to its grave, now wants to resuscitate it, or rather has to. Bismarck as restorer of the 'German fundamental rights',[333] it's too funny. Things are not looking quite as they should in the militia and in the reserves, who have been recalled, either; in Görlitz there was a serious fracas amongst them, soldiers of the line had to be called out and then withdraw because the fellows were not willing to tolerate intervention of that kind. If these people are kept hanging around under arms for another 3-4 weeks, there is no knowing what they might do. And since neither Prussia nor Italy is ready to attack, they will presumably have to stick there until the end of May at least.
This much is certain: Monsieur Bismarck has ridden into a morass with which neither he nor any of the present regime can cope. If things are settled peaceably, he will have burnt up the available funds and therefore he will no longer be able to help himself, and if there is war, he will have to Acheronta movere,0 who will certainly consume him. In these circumstances, even a direct victory of the Chamber-burghers will be revolutionary in character and is bound to lead to other things.
For all that, I still cannot think that in the middle of the 19th century North and South Germany will come to blows with each other, just because Bismarck would have it so in the interests of the Russians and Bonaparte. However, if the storm does break, it may go ill with the Prussians. This time, the Austrians seem to be intent on going to the limit of their strength, and, even if their big talk of 900,000 men is nonsense, it is still possible that they may take the field in Saxony with substantial numerical superiority. Against Austria, Prussia cannot draw on the Rhenish and Westphalian corps at all, and only on part of the Saxon. There remain the other six army corps, which will scarcely be able to muster 240,000 men to face the enemy. If, as is suggested, the Austrians initially remain on the defensive in Italy, they will only need 150,000 men there, and can perfectly well send 300-350,000 men against Prussia — unless the Russians compel them to keep a
163. Marx to Engels. 17 May
strong force in Galicia. The deciding battle could then be fought by 180,000 Prussians against 240-280,000 Austrians and would almost infallibly be another Jena[203] and lead directly to Berlin. But it is difficult to speculate about this, as the Austrians' troops are always much stronger on paper, and they tell a lot of lies, at present in particular.
Unfortunately, Monsieur Charles3 is behind with the ledger, which has my account in it, so that at the moment I cannot even properly ascertain how I stand, and as the financial year ends in 6 weeks and I then must have a certain amount of capital in the business, I shall have to make my dispositions accordingly. As soon as I can, I shall add up my worldly assets and send you some money, if it is at all possible. But, at all events, you can count on my letting you have a £50 early in July immediately after the accounts for the financial year have been made up.
The Kreuz-Zeitungb makes delightful reading, advocating as it does universal suffrage, Bonapartism, Victor Emmanuel, etc. The dirt those fellows are now being obliged to eat is abundant.
Kindest regards to your wife and the girls.
Your
F. E.
163
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 17 May 1866
DEAR FRED, How are the articles on Poland" progressing? The paper d may or may not hold out, you must give as much as you can. The Poles here are waiting for the next article and BOTHER ME with enquiries.[354] The articles have created a stir in other respects, too. Having earlier praised them, Foxikins launched a DIATRIBE the day before yesterday in the Central Council against the passage in which you ascribe the partitioning to the corruption of the Polish aristocracy. Amongst other things, he singled out the Germans for attack, for having ruined the Poles in particular through the Saxon dynasty, etc. I replied to him in brief.[335]
It is true that for all their big talk the Prussians are inclined to draw in their horns, and Bismarck is meeting strong opposition from Burp,(1) too. But a retreat is scarcely possible in Italy, and that may have repercussions on Prussia again. What Izzyb is missing by being so dead! Bismarck would have had him playing a part now. Bismarck is surely cursing us (and thinking us Austrian agents) for spoiling his easy game with the workers.
From the beginning of this week my workc has at last been advancing again. If you can send me some vino, please do so, as the sudden abstinence may do harm.
Mr Mazzini gave himself no rest until he had founded an 'INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE' in opposition to us. On it are jackass Holtorp, Langiewicz, Ledru, Kinkel, Blind, I believe also — Bolleter! Our Association is gaining ground daily. Only in Germany nothing can be done, on account of jackass Liebknecht
(GOOD FELLOW AS HE IS!).
The present crisis appears to me to be merely a premature, specifically financial crisis. It could only become important if the business in the UNITED STATES goes rotten, and there would scarcely be time for that now. What effect is it having on you COTTONLORDS? And what effect has the fall in cotton prices had?
Salut.
Your
K. M.
164. Engels to Marx. 25 May
164
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 25 May 1866 Mornington Street
Dear Moor,
The PANIC has, at all events, come much too soon and may possibly spoil a good solid crisis for us which would otherwise have occurred in 1867 or 1868. If we had not simultaneously chanced to have the big fall in cotton, we would barely have been affected by it here. The collapse of the LIMITED LIABILITY and FINANCING swindles had after all been long foreseen and hardly affected our TRADE at all. But the colossal losses on cotton which occurred simultaneously threaten to make it a grave matter here, so many houses here and in Liverpool are entangled in it through their branches in Bombay, etc., and as it occurred at the same time as the MONEY PANIC and the 10% bank-rate, it may be very grave for those who are holding much cotton. Here at least the business is far from over yet.
If the Austrians are canny enough not to attack, that will surely put the cat among the pigeons in the Prussian army. The fellows have never been as rebellious as they are in the present mobilisation. Unfortunately, one only learns the tiniest part of what is happening, but even that is enough to prove that a war of attack is impossible with this army. Once these lads are concentrated in large numbers, and begin to count themselves and discover that [3]/[4] of the army is of one mind, and if they then have to hang around under arms for 3-4 weeks during the congress, things will inevitably lead to a crisis, and one fine morning obedience will be refused. Something is bound to spark it off; and with an army like that, once one battalion starts, it will spread like wildfire. But even if an open outbreak were to be avoided, it is certain that this army, with its MORALE as it is, and commanded by the old William, with Frederick Charles and the Crown Prince[3]
under him commanding the wings, would at once be beaten beyond salvation by the furious Austrians under Benedek, who will have none of the Archdukes, nor any interference in the appointment of his staff, and has 300-360,000 men under him. The old jackass[3] knows that, too, and I am convinced that he will withdraw as soon as ever he can, precisely because of the mood in his armies. What I said in my pamphlet(1) last year about the character of the mobilised Prussian army, has been fully confirmed.
Delightful is the embarrassment of the National Association-ites[152] since Bismarck has plagiarised their programme; those fellows will now have to oppose their own Great-Prussia phrases, exactly as the Kreuz-Zeitung" did with its own feudal phrases.
The London correspondent of The Manchester Guardian reports that in this solemn performance of state[336] Louis Bonaparte has made the following conditions the price for his approval: Sardinia from Italy, Luxemburg, Saarlouis and Saarbrücken from Prussia (Landau is the only thing he has forgotten)—and that is the minimum.b
I shall see if I can complete my article on Poland[334] tomorrow. To be quite frank, it is a sacrifice for me to provide that jackass Miall with contributions when one is for ever being explicitly reminded that the editors do not accept responsibility for the section from contributors, whilst they obviously do so for the asininities printed elsewhere in the paper.[337] If I had known beforehand how our pieces were going to be treated in a papere
which is after all supposed to be our own — or at least to belong to the workers' party, and that we were merely going to be thus tolerated in it, and we are supposed to be grateful, as it were, into the bargain,— I would not have written a single line. But you were sick at the time, and I didn't want to do anything that might disturb your convalescence. But I was vexed by it nonetheless. All the same, one has said 'A' and must see that one also says 'B'.
Kindest regards.
Your
F. E.
165. Marx to Engels. 7 June
165
MARX TO ENGELS[103]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 7 JUNE 1866
DEAR FRED,
I am in a most awkward situation: pawning has now reached its Thule (1) and I am being most furiously dunned as well. Regarding my physical condition, there has fortunately been no recurrence of anything carbuncular. However, I was obliged to go to Allen about my liver throuble, since Gumpert is not here and this thing cannot be treated from a distance. I have still nearly a whole BOTTLE of arsenic left, but have not taken it for several weeks now, as it is incompatible with my present style of life.
Were you among the victims of the CONSOLIDATED BANK? Dr Rode was here the day before yesterday and maliciously reported that Dronke has suffered serious losses owing to the Barnett CRASH.[338]
So, there will be war after all, unless a miracle occurs. The Prussians will pay dearly for their bragging, and, whatever happens, the idyll in Germany is over. The Proudhonist clique among the students in Paris (Courrier français) is preaching peace, declaring war out of date and nationalities nonsense, and attacking Bismarck and Garibaldi, etc.[339] As polemic against chauvinism, their activities are useful and understandable. But as faithful followers of Proudhon (my very good friends here, Lafargue and Longuet, are also among that number) who believe that the whole of Europe must and will sit quietly on its arse until the French monsieurs have abolished 'la misère et l'ignorance',b under which latter they themselves are labouring in inverse proportion to their squawking about 'science sociale', they are grotesque. In their articles about the PRESENT AGRICULTURAL CRISIS in France, their 'knowledge' quite takes one's breath away.c
The Russians, who are for ever playing at the old game of playing off the jackasses of Europe against each other, and being PARTNER at one moment of A, and at the next of B, have of late indisputably PUSHED ON the Austrians, 1. because Prussia has not yet
166. Marx to Engels. 9 June
made the appropriate concession over Oldenburg, 2. in order to tie the Austrians' hands in Galicia, and 3. no doubt also because Mr Alexander II, like Alexander I (in his last years), is in such a conservatively morose mood on account of the attempt on his life[340] that his diplomatic gentlemen at least require some 'conservative' excuses, and an alliance with Austria is conservative. Come the OPPORTUNE MOMENT, and they will show the BACKSIDE of the coin.
The official tone adopted by the 'BLOOD AND moN'-PrussiansM1
shows how very anxious they are. They are now even doing obeisance to the French Revolution of 1789! They are complaining about Austrian tetchiness!
The best thing in the lousy debate here in Parliament was the register of sins that Disraeli laid at the unfortunate Clarendon's door.[342]
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Italian enthusiasm will no doubt get its bucket of cold water. Even its melodrama, in keeping with the national character, by the way, would be tolerable, if right underneath it all[328] they were not setting their hopes on Badinguet.[3] I cannot forget my Tzzy.(1) If he were still alive now, what a scandal he would create!
166
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 9 June 1866 DEAR FRED, Many thanks for the £10.
Whatever the pressure from events, my workc has been progressing poorly owing to purely physical factors ever since my 9 1866
return from Margate.[307] I have been so low over the last few weeks that I have not been able even to attend the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION any more. I had Gumpert's prescription (for my liver) made u p for me yesterday, as Allen's stuff was of no use at all to me. Furthermore, I have had a tooth pulled, to put an end to the toothache, and probably a second one will have to go, too.
If your wine-cellar permits (that is, if you are not thereby obliged to buy in more), I should appreciate it if you would send me some, as I am now forbidden beer altogether.
The verses await your 'commentary'. They are nothing in my hands.
This evening I am compelled to go to the meeting of the 'DIRECTORS AND FRIENDS' of The Commonwealth.[290] The thing is on its last legs. Apart from the acute financial difficulties, there are internal political ones as well. Since that jackass of a Bradford MANUFACTURER, Mr Kell (who has given £ 5 0 , his brother ditto, and hints of more to come), has Miall entirely under his thumb, Dr Bridges, Professor Beesly, Harrison (the COMTEISTS) have threatened not merely to resign but also to make a public statement about their resignation.
I am tired of the business and shall propose to the people this evening that they should sell their bankrupt institution to Kell et Co. and put an end to the farce of A BRADFORD MANUFACTURER directing a London 'workers' organ'. If they do not agree, I shall, at all events, announce my withdrawal. T h e paper cannot survive for much longer on its own resources, is therefore dependent on advances of bourgeois money, and thereby loses its own character. I have shown great patience in this matter, because I always hoped that the workers themselves would make sufficient efforts to continue the undertaking on their own; and, for another thing, I did not want to be a wet blanket.
Mr Gottfried Kinkel has been appointed to a chair in Zurich. Since the sounds of war started up, the 'Saxon' workers have been flocking to join the 'INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION'.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
167. Engels to Marx. 11 June
ing against Pasteur, Huxley, etc., and in favour of generatio aequivoca.* He is going to inform me of some new writings on the subject.
167
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 11 June 1866
Dear Moor,
The crate of Bordeaux will be sent off to you this evening. It is very good wine from Borkheim. I should have sent it to you before, but the lads here have dilly-dallied over it, partly from overwork. I had written out the address for them long since. I hope that it and regular exercise will do you good. What do you say to coming up here for a week, say, end of this inst. would suit me, and then you could take the money straight back with you early in July? At the same time, you could for once have a thorough consultation with Gumpert.
We have so far just escaped the spate of bank-failures unscathed. Dronke told me himself that he was in for a bit with Barnett, but more because he had had to change his banker; he had £3,000 credit there — however, he was also a shareholder, and that's where he will lose. Eichhoff also has had the honour of seeing his banker fail, and has come a cropper to the tune of £16. He is not losing any sleep over it; if he cannot pay a bill that's due, he just lets it be.
Mr G. Kinkel has been putting it around every year that he has been offered the chair in Zurich — so, does that mean the people of Zurich are in fact really going to have to believe it at last?
In Germany it looks more like revolution every day. In Berlin and Barmen menacing crowds of laid-off workers are roaming the streets. G. Ermen, who came back on Friday, told me that he happened to engage in discussion about the war with some Prussian lieutenant on the Rhine Bridge at Coblenz, and the man had been very doubtful about the issue of the affair, admitted that both the men and the leadership of the Austrians were better than the Prussians', and when G. Ermen asked, 'What would happen if the Prussians were whacked?' he answered, 'Then we'll have a revolution.' Another philistine told me that he had heard from a reliable source in Cologne that the militia companies are being dispersed among the line, and that the militia regiments are being topped up with line; the order has apparently been given out. In any case, the army must be in such a state that a victory can only be expected if the Austrians move across the frontier first, and this time they seem to be flatly refusing to do so. But, for that same reason, the Prussians don't want to move either. This state of affairs may drag on for another week, until the situation is so tense that it breaks.
There is a delightful historical irony being enacted through Bismarck's person. At the same moment that he utters liberal phrases he is forced to perform absolutist actions. In one and the same breath he will proclaim the German imperial constitution and suspend the Prussian constitution (the ordinances are already prepared).[321] Good idea to try and play the Bonaparte against the bourgeoisie with the Junkers behind one instead of the peasants!
The militia will be just as much of a danger to the Prussians in this war as the Poles were in 1806,[343] who also comprised over Vs of the army and threw the whole show into disorder before the battle. Only instead of disbanding, the militia will rebel after the defeat.
The whole left bank of the Rhine has been denuded of troops, there are only 2 militia regiments stationed in Luxemburg, and they say the fortress is already being secretly evacuated; in Saarlouis there is merely a militia battalion that is not yet up to strength. Von der Heydt is to arrange the Saarbrücken coal-mine and State Railway deal via Oppenheim to raise money, and the Westphalian State Railway is to be sold to the Bergisch-Märkische Railway. The bonds for its Cologne-Minden shares[237] have been advanced to the state by the Bank of Prussia, which was the sole purpose of the affair. In all this the Berlin bankers are all working hand in glove with the government.
I think that in a fortnight the storm will break in Prussia. If this opportunity passes without being used, and if the people allow
168. Marx to Engels. 20 June
that to happen, we can then calmly pack up our revolutionary paraphernalia and devote ourselves to pure theory.
Stieber is chief of police in the field, is organising the 'Blind conspiracy' and has, to this end, sent our friend Greif to London again. Can we not arrange for him to be given a good hiding?
Kindest regards.
Your
F. E.
168
MARX TO ENGELS[344]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 20 JUNE 1866
DEAR FRED,
This damned weather is having a particularly evil effect sur mon physique*; and this is the reason why I did not acknowledge the 'wine' earlier, nor write to you otherwise. There is no chance of coming to Manchester, as I cannot leave the house in my PRESENT STATE; besides, I have to be here for the 'INTERNATIONAL', where my FRENCH FRIENDS have already used my absence once in these TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES to execute some tomfoolery in the name of the Association.[313]
As regards newspapers here, in my view the best thing to do, if nothing comes of the Manchester business, is to send a proper MILITARY ARTICLE to The Times, to which you can present yourself as the English correspondent of the Darmstadt Militär-Zeitung}' No need for any political considerations, as one London paper is just as bad as any other, and what matters is to obtain the widest publicity.[345] 1866
You must now keep me 'critically' au courant des affaires in ITALY and GERMANY. There was a debate at yesterday's meeting of the INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL about the present war. It was announced beforehand and our ROOM was very full. Even the Italian gentlemen had honoured us with their presence again. The discussion WAS WOUND UP, as could have been foreseen, with the 'QUESTION OF NATIONALITY' in general and the attitude we should adopt to it. This sujet adjourned until next Tuesday.[346]
The French, very strongly represented, GAVE VENT to their cordial dislike for the Italians.
The representatives of 'jeune France'b (non-workers), by the way, trotted out their view that any nationality and even nations are 'des préjugés surannés'^ Proudhonised Stirnerianism. Everything to be broken down into small 'groupes' or 'communes', which in turn form an 'association', but not a state. Furthermore, this 'individualisa-tion' of mankind and the 'mutualisme'M1 it entails are to proceed by bringing history to a halt in every other country and the whole world waits until the French are ready to carry out a social revolution. Then they will demonstrate the experiment to us, and the rest of the world, being bowled over by the force of their example, will do the same. Just what Fourier expected from his phalanstère modèle. D'ailleurs," everyone who clutters up the 'social' question with the 'superstitions' of the Old World is a 'reactionary'.
The English laughed heartily when I began my SPEECH with the observation that our friend Lafargue, and others, who had abolished nationalities, had addressed us in 'French', i.e., in a language which c/ln of the audience did not understand. I went on to suggest that by his denial of nationalities he seemed quite unconsciously to imply their absorption by the model French nation.
For the rest, the position is difficult now because one must equally oppose the silly Italianism of the English, on the one hand, and the mistaken polemic against it of the French, on the other, and above all prevent any demonstration which would involve our Association in a one-sided course.
Salut. Y
K. M.
169. Engels to Marx. 4 July
169
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 4 July 1866
Dear Moor,
The other half of the note enclosed. Unfortunately, your telegram reached me after 12 o'clock?(1) so that I could not make use of the first post.
What do you say to the Prussians? Their initial successes were exploited with enormous vigour, and, if it had not been for this intensity, Benedek would probably have quietly withdrawn to Olmütz,[3] but he was obviously forced to come to battle yesterday, and there could be no doubt about the issue after what had befallen. To determine the outcome of such a decisive battle in 8 hours is quite unprecedented; in other circumstances, it would have lasted 2 days.b But the needle-gun is a merciless weapon, and then these fellows really do fight with a verve that I have never before observed in such peace-time troops. For the defender, the attacker's need to take positions by storm compen-sates for his superiority in weapons, and here too the Prussians appear to have accomplished a great deal. Benedek, with his deep 'plan', turns out to have been not merely a jackass but a dullard as well. How splendidly he could, with sufficient men, have caught those fellows in the mountains!
At all events, Bismarck will now try to set up his Imperial Germany, and that should include Bohemia, which he hopes to take from the Austrians and thereby establish a link between Silesia and Bavaria. In the treaty with Italy, he did after all stipulate 'un territoire autrichien équivalent à la Vénéti'.hi2S
Berlin is again acting with the vileness for which it is famed and yesterday even went so far as to elect a whole load of ministers. What will those camels of men of Progress" say now?
The farce up in the North-West is delightful and will probably soon be no less so in the South, too.
The only safeguard against the betrayal that Bismarck has plotted with Bonaparte is the quite unexpected magnitude of the
170. Marx to Engels. 7 July
victories. He will now find it difficult to cede much, and the Belgians will probably have to pay part of the price.[349]
Kindest regards to the LADIES.
Your
F. E.
170
MARX TO ENGELS[101]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 7 July 1866 DEAR FRED,
D'abord(1) my heartfelt thanks for the Californian consignment. Yet, I was unable to pay the LANDLORD, who is again owed for two quarters. I had to allow priority to part-payments to the fellows who are dunning me every hour of the day.
As regards my state of health, first of all, I have had my nose properly to the grindstone again over the past two weeks, and hope that by the end of August, if I preserve this degree of health, I shall have finished the first volume,b which I am having published by itself. It is true that I am obliged to continue with Gumpert's liver-medicine every day, as I would otherwise be laid low at once. Question: is the arsenic (put aside for many weeks now) compatible with it? I am asking because for 4 days now another carbuncle has been appearing above my right collar-bone. I owe more to the Bordeaux than to any medicine. I am incidentally only working in the day-time, as a sporadic attempt to work at night (once or twice) immediately had very unfortunate consequences.
Before passing to general matters, can you translate 'PUT STRETCHES UPON THE MULE' into German for me, and tell me what 'PICKS' in weaving are called in German? What is a 'FLYER' on the mule?
The workers' demonstrations in London are fabulous compared with anything seen in England since 1849, and they are solely the work of the 'INTERNATIONAL'. M R Lucraft, F.I., the captain in Trafalgar Square, is ONE OF OUR COUNCIL.[350] This shows the difference between acting behind the scenes whilst retiring in public, and the democrats' habit of puffing themselves up in public and doing nothing.
The Commonwealth is about to expire.[290] Fox is leaving it next week. Apropos. Stumpf has written to me from Mainz that among the workers the demand for your book 'The Condition, etc.'b is growing daily and that you must certainly bring out the second edition, if only for party reasons. At the same time, his personal experiences lead him to believe that immediately after the war[345]
'the labour question' in Germany will come noticeably to the fore.
Freiligrath has put out a melancholy-lyrical little turd on the fratricidal war, which his daughter Kate has englished in today's Athenaeum?
Beside a great Prussian defeat, which perhaps (oh but those Berliners!) might have led to a revolution, there could have been no better outcome than their stupendous victory. Thiers had been so successful in denouncing Bonaparte's policy of helping to 'make' Prussia (for beside the English, your Frenchman in fact really hates only the Prussians), that Boustrapa[76] had to amend the constitution he had imposed on the French and 'abolish' discussion of the address par ordre dud Moniteur. (I am enclosing J. Favre's speech on Mexico and Glais-Bizoin's bad witticisms for you, so that you can see what Boustrapa's position was before the outbreak of war.)[351] Mr Bonaparte was counting on victory and defeat swinging back and forth between Prussians and Austrians, so that eventually he would be able to step in between the exhausted combatants like Jupiter Scapin.c The Prussians' success really puts his regime in France in dire peril (it is his second great miscalculation since the American Civil War) if he does not manage to dictate the terms of peace. On the other hand, the same success (we are not back in 1815 now) makes it impossible, almost impossible, for the Prussian dynasty to accept terms other than those which Austria must reject, not to mention the fact that handsome William,(2) alias Alexander the Great, cannot possibly cede German territory to France. The Prussians' decision will depend on the 'nephew' in St Petersburg/ It is impossible to say what he will do, as that would require one to be in possession of the material in the Russian State Chancellory. But I, for my part, cannot understand how the Russians, who are furthermore offended that the Austrians refused their help, can permit Austria to get her breath back and miss this favourable moment for their Turco-Danubian manoeuvres. Mr Victor Emmanuel is also in a pretty pickle. Venice now belongs to Bonaparte. If he accepts it from him as a present, that will be the end for his dynasty. On the other hand, what can he do against France, and where can he now attack Austria?[352]
But what do you say to our Foxikins, who dashed breathlessly into our house the day before yesterday, exclaiming: 'Bonaparte has saved Germany!' This view is shared by Beesly, Harrison, etc., and the whole COMTEIST clique. Write to me soon, as pen and ink have to serve in place of oral communication in this EVENTFUL PERIOD.
My best compliments to MRS Lizzy.(3)
Little Jenny would like to know how your 'Africans' are doing?b
Salut
Your
K.M.
Naturally, Bonaparte does not want war now, until he has introduced the NEEDLE-GUN or an equivalent. A YANKEE*c has offered the war ministry here a rifle which, so I am assured by a REFUGEE Prussian officer (Wilke), is as superior to the needle-gun as the latter is to 'OLD BESS',[354] by virtue of its extreme simplicity of design, non-susceptibility to heating, reduced need for cleaning, and cheapness. Is there any sphere in which our theory that the organisation of labour is determined by the means of production is more dazzlingly vindicated than in the industry for human slaughter? It really would be worth your while to write something on the subject (I have not the necessary knowledge for it) which I would include as an appendix to my bookd under your name. Give the matter some thought. If you do it, however, it must be done pour le premier volume,e in which I am dealing ex professo' with this topic. You will appreciate what great pleasure it would give me if you were also to appear in my principal work (previously I have only produced trifles) as a direct collaborator, and not just in quotation!
171. Engels to Marx. 9 July
I am studying Comte on the side just now, as the English and French are making such a fuss of the fellow. What seduces them about him is his encyclopaedic quality, la synthèse. But that is pitiful when compared with Hegel (although Comte is superior to him as a mathematician and physicist by profession, i.e., superior in the detail, though even here Hegel is infinitely greater as a whole). And this shitty positivism came out in 1832!
171
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 9 July[3] 1866 Dear Moor,
History, i.e., world history, is becoming ever more ironical. What could be more splendid than that Bonaparte should be thus mocked in practice by his pupil Bismarck, who, backwoods junker as he is, has suddenly outgrown his master and all at once gives the whole world a tangible demonstration of how very much this
arbitre de l'Europe exists ON SUFFERANCE. And then this Bismarck himself, who, in order to be able to govern to all appearances feudally and absolutely for a few months at home, is pursuing the policy of the bourgeoisie WITH A VENGEANCE abroad, preparing the ground for the bourgeoisie to rule and striking along paths where progress is only possible by liberal, even revolutionary means, and, in so doing, making his own backwoods junkers be daily at variance with their own principles. The presenters of the ceremonial shield to Francis Bomba(1) are in alliance with Garibaldi, and the advocates of Thrones by the grace of God go swallowing up whole countries in spite of Victor Emmanuel! 3D5 Never has there been anything quite so splendid as the Kreuz-Zeitungc in these last 4 weeks, and the historico-feudal party, which cost the genius of Frederick William IV of blessed memory so much toil and trouble to found, is now choking on the filth which it is being forced to gobble up at its own leader's command.
The simple fact is: Prussia has 500,000 needle-guns and the rest of the world not even 500. It is not possible to equip an army with breech-loaders in under 2, 3 or perhaps 5 years. Until then Prussia will be dux. Do you think Bismarck will not make use of such a moment? Certainly he will. Bonaparte will take very good care not to pick a quarrel, and as for the Russians, it is true they are setting up a most furious howl in the Journal de St.-Pétersbourg," but militarily they are now less to be feared than ever. I have no doubt at all that this sudden enormous growth of Prussia's might will drive Bonaparte and the Russians together, and that their first endeavour will be to prevent each and every increase in Prussia's might. But they will take care to hold back from war; as for France, if she were to intervene actively, that would assuredly be the best way to drive the South Germans properly into the arms of the Prussians and consign the civil war to oblivion.[356] And as for the Russians, Monsieur Bismarck is the man to threaten them with a new Polish insurrection, and they know that the fellow is unscrupulous enough for that. In general, Bismarck is only too well aware of his power and also knows that it can only maintain its present magnitude for a few years, and I believe he will exploit it to the very last drop. Moreover, Bonaparte can always be bought off with Belgium in the end, and only just before the war Goltz, Bonaparte and the Crown Prince of Hollandb 'considered the possibility' of dividing Belgium between France and Holland, which would then cede Luxemburg to France.[349] I believe the war is not over yet by a long chalk, and there is much that can still happen.
The Russians really do seem to have realigned themselves towards Austria some time ago now, and this tremendous success of the Prussians will make it impossible for them to go back on it in any way. The more so since Austria will now be ready to receive Bosnia or Walachia in exchange for Venice, with Russia then taking Moldavia.
You see, by the by, how right I was in my appraisal of the Prussian army when I repeatedly said there was far more to it than people were wont to admit. After these successes and after
172. Engels to Marx. 12 July
the absolutely brilliant performance of the troops, they will be so much more self-confident and, at the same time, more experi-enced at war that they could take the field against the French tomorrow, even if the latter had breech-loaders, and the French bayonet, at all events, has had its day, like the Spanish pike in its time. When breech-loading becomes general, the cavalry will come into its own again.
I must make a proper report to Jenny about the Africans,[353] as I have been meaning to for a long time now.
Many regards.
Your
F. E.
172
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 12 July 1866
Dear Moor,
I have written about your history to Gumpert, who is in Wales; as I do not know his address, the letter will first have to go to his home here, hence certainly some delay. As soon as I have a reply, I'll write to you, but meanwhile I should advise you to take arsenic at once and put off everything else, so as to stop the damned carbuncle. Put an end to this abomination at any cost.
Bonaparte's little plan and his intervention are in part probably a consequence of an earlier agreement with Bismarck, but certainly also — the new Confederation of the Rhine, etc.—are threats in his direction. But how the fellow can be so stupid as to make this plan public is beyond my comprehension[357]: as with Schapper — that he could be so stupid, etc.— It will assuredly drive the whole of South Germany into the arms of the Prussians and even the old philistines at the Exchange here are quite beside
173. Marx to Engels. 21 July
themselves about it. One old man from Frankfurt told me: it's worth more to the Prussians than a reinforcement of 100,000 men.
You see how the stupid South Germans are letting themselves be picked off one by one without even taking the trouble to close ranks.[356] It'll soon be the old, old story, we've been betrayed, we'll be led like lambs to the slaughter!a 1849 all over again. I feel sorry for the fellows, they're good soldiers. Only now does one understand how the French were able to score such successes against the 'Empire', but not how the Empire was able to hold out for so long against a concentrated monarchy like France.[358]
I will try and produce the stuff about the mass-murder-industry for you.b
Many regards.
Your
F. E.
173
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 21 Julyc 1866
DEAR FRED, The carbuncle has fortunately departed again of its own accord. But in the present heat my LIVER has been and still is scourging me sorely. For all that, my workd is progressing well and will continue to do so if my present condition lasts. It is, of course, embarrassing for me to have to pester you again already, but as you will gather from the enclosed note (which you must return to me) there is periculum in mora.* I have with difficulty obtained an extension until next Tuesday. From your last communication I am in doubt as to whether you are in Manchester. Nor have I received any more copies of The Manchester Guardian. Or has nothing else of yours appeared in it?[345]
One must refrain from passing any judgment on the present circumstances, pending news either of a ceasefire or of a decisive battle at Vienna. At any rate, the course of events has demonstrated the extraordinary decay of the Austrian system.
For the moment, these English of ours are, as always, paying homage to success. The great Arnold Ruge, too, has made his pronunciamento for Prussia 14 days ago, as the great Kinkel did earlier still. If the Prussians continue victorious to the end, what a throng of place-seekers and fatherland-rescuers will surge towards Frankfurt!
At all events, the 'homme prestige',(1) 'Jupiter Scapin',b GROTESQUE PROVIDENCE or EUROPE is shaken and even overshadowed by Bismarck. That is some consolation.
T h e V T H REPORT of t h e CHILDREN'S EMPLOYMENT COMMISSION a p p e a r e d here a few days ago. It concludes the enquêtec into the manufactories, and only a supplement has yet to appear concerning the 'ORGANISED GANGS' of women and children, who are sporadically used in agriculture. There could have been no more dreadful blow to the optimism of the bourgeoisie since 1850 than from these 5 BLUE BOOKS. Furthermore, the Vlllth REPORT of the BOARD OF HEALTH d was brought out a few days ago, which contains in particular a very detailed enquête of the living conditions of the proletariat.[359]
Salut
Your
K. M.
174. Engels to Marx. 25 July ;
174
ENGELS TO MARX[101]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 25 July 1866
Dear Moor,
I think you will now have received the notes all right; in a moment of distraction I must have put in, in their stead, the piece of paper on which I had noted the Nos. The notes themselves I had slipped inside the cover of my writing-case, which is where I found them when I had recovered from the initial shock of your telegram.[46] I hope they still arrived in time.
The business in Germany now seems fairly straightforward to me. From the moment of Bismarck's so colossal success in using the Prussian army to put the bourgeois plan for Little Germany into effect,3b0 developments in Germany have moved so decisively in that direction that we shall have to accept the fait accompli just like everybody else, WE MAY LIKE IT OR NOT. AS regards the national aspect of the question, at all events, Bismarck will set up a Little German Empire of the dimensions envisaged by the bourgeoisie, i. e., including South-West Germany, the phrases about the Main boundary and the OPTIONAL SOUTH GERMAN SEPARATE CONFEDERACY, at any rate, only being intended for the French[367]; meanwhile the Prussians are marching on Stuttgart. Incidentally, before very long, the German provinces of Austria will join this Empire too, since Austria is certain to go Hungarian now,[293] and the Germans will become the 3rd nation in the Empire — lower even than the Slavs.
Politice" Bismarck will be forced to rely on the bourgeoisie, whom he needs against the Imperial Princes. Perhaps not at this moment, as his prestige and the army are still sufficient. But simply to ensure that parliament will grant the necessary conditions for central power, he will have to give something to the bourgeoisie, and the natural course of events will constantly compel him or his successors to appeal to the bourgeoisie again; so that, even if Bismarck perhaps gives the bourgeoisie no more than he absolutely has to now, he will, nevertheless, be driven increasingly in a bourgeois direction.
The good aspect to the affair is that it simplifies the situation and makes revolution easier by putting an end to the brawling among the smaller capitals and, at all events, hastens developments. A German parliament is after all quite a different thing from a Prussian Chamber. All the little states will be drawn into the movement, there will be an end to the worst localised tendencies, and the parties will at last become truly national instead of merely local.
The chief disadvantage — and it is a very substantial one — is the inevitable swamping of Germany by Prussianism. Also the temporary exclusion of German Austria, a consequence of which will be an immediate advance of the Slav cause in Bohemia, Moravia and Carinthia. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to prevent either.
In my view, therefore, we can do nothing whatsoever but simply accept the fact, without approving of it, and use, as far as we can, the increased opportunities which are, at all events, bound to arise now, to organise and unite the German proletariat nationally.
I did not need Stumpfs letter to tell me that BROTHER Liebknecht would launch himself into fanatical support of the Austrian cause, it was absolutely inevitable.[31]'[1] Incidentally, there was no mistaking his furious despatches from Leipzig in the Neue Frankfurter Zeitung. This N. F. Zeitung, with its Blind-ish regicidal tendencies, went so far as to reproach the Prussians for their disgraceful treatment of 'His Highness the Elector of Hesse'" and was beside itself with enthusiasm for the poor blind Guelph.h
Nothing more of mine in the Guardian.[34]"
Your
F. E.
Best wishes to the LADIES.
175. Marx to Engels. 27 July
175
MARX TO ENGELS[101]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 27 July[11] 1866
Dear FRED,
Best thanks for the £10. They came in the nick of time. I have not written to Stumpf, precisely because he asked for a line of 'conduct', and my view was that he would do best not to 'conduct' himself at all until events took a decisive turn.[361] That was a view which I RATHER thought advisable not to put to him in writing. Mainz is at present still encircled, so far as I know, so postal communication is also presumably interrupted. Did you write to Stumpf?
The comedy in Frankfurt makes up somewhat for the exhala-tion of the victors. Lord, lord, they howled, 25 million! And his worship the mayor[1]' goes and hangs himself!b And the Prussians, for their part, officially declare that Frankfurt will have to fork out because its papers have 'insulted' His Majesty William the Conqueror.' Since his government post in Brunn is only temporary, Stieber will eventually become mayor of the Frankfurter-on-Mainers, whom by the way I have always thought the most insufferable scoundrels. And Edgar Bauer will be imposed on them as Censor-in-Chief. But as regards the Eschenheimer Gasse,[3]"[3]
Privy Counsellor Duncker would — except that he is, of course, ruling in Kassel.
I am entirely at one with you that we must take the mess as it is. It is, nevertheless, pleasant to be far off at this youthful time of love's first dawning.(1) The arrogance of the Prussians and the foolishness of handsome William,e who believes that nothing has changed since his dream of victory, except that he is now a great potentate, etc., will have their effect soon enough. The Austrians now find themselves where the Slav fanatics from Prague wanted them in 1848.3M However, for the moment their loss of Venice, their enforced concentration of strength is in no way to the Russians' advantage. Being a Pan-Slavic empire themselves, they will be all the more antagonistic to the Muscovites. In view of the extraordinary decline of the Habsburgs, it is certainly to be feared that BY and BY they will allow the Russians to tempt them into a combined attack on Turkey.
For the workers, of course, everything that centralises the bourgeoisie is to their advantage. At all events, even if peace is concluded tomorrow, it will be even more provisional than that of Villafranca and Zurich was.[305] As soon as the 'arms reform' has been completed by the various parties, it will be back to 'bashing', as Schapper calls it. At all events, Bonaparte has suffered a setback, too, although the setting up of military kingdoms on all sides right and left fits the Plon-Plonist[93] scheme 'de la démocratie générale'."
The government has almost caused a mutiny here. Your Englishman first needs a revolutionary education, of course, for which two weeks would suffice if Sir Richard Mayne had absolute powers of command. In actual fact, it all hung on one point. If the RAILINGS had been used — and it almost came to that — for offence and defence against the police, and some score of the latter killed, the military would have had to 'step in', instead of merely parading. And then things would have got quite jolly. This much is certain: that these stiff-necked John Bulls, whose sconces appear made to measure for the constables' BLUDGEONS, will accomplish nothing without a really bloody clash with those in power.
A touching scene, that, between that old jackass Beales and the equally asinine old Walpole, and then the intervention of the thin-voiced, INTRUSIVE, self-important Holyoake, who through 'love of the truth' is constantly finding his way into The Times—nothing but peace and dissoluteness.[306] Meanwhile, whilst these riff-raff are patting each other on the back and belick-spittling each other, that cur Knox, the police magistrate of Marylebone, is sending people down in a summary fashion, which shows what would happen if London were Jamaica.[252]
Disraeli has made a fine fool of himself, firstly by his pathetic remark in the Lower House,b 'he did not know whether he still had a house', and then by the strong military occupation of that same house, although, thirdly, the MOB (instructed beforehand by the REFORM LEAGUE people) deliberately left the house of Mr 'Vivian Grey'c UNTOUCHED. The house lost not a hair from its head. For which ' Elcho's window-panes had to suffer the more. I had
176. Engels to Marx. 6 August
dropped the HINT to Gremer and other MANAGERS that it might be appropriate to pay a visit to the 'Times' NEWSPAPER. AS they did not immediately 'take' the HINT, or did not want to, I did not press it.
The cholera is paying us (I mean the Londoners) its respects with the utmost gravity, and Dr Hunter's report, in the Vlllth REPORT of the HEALTH BOARD[3] on the 'HOUSING of the POOR', which appeared last week,[359] is presumably intended to serve Madam Cholera as a DIRECTORY of addresses calling for preferential visitation.
MY BEST COMPLIMENTS TO MRS Lizzy.(1)
Your
K. M.
176
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 6 August 1866
Dear Moor,
The humour in your last letter leads me to conclude that your liver must be much better, although you do not say anything about it yourself. As regards the Frankfurters,b you should have just heard the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the ones here, of whom we have a whole legion here and who got the most frightful letters from their brothers, etc. On this occasion the Prussian lieutenant did, of course, conduct himself with all the charm for which he is renowned, but it was to be expected from the beginning that these gentlemen would be MORE FRIGHTENED THAN HURT. In the rest of South Germany, where the Frankfurters are not especially popular either and where they are reproached for running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, there was positive pleasure that it was they who were treated so roughly. I have seen such letters myself.
So, Bismarck won in the end, and Wilhelmchen(2) has issued a form of words to conciliate his Highnesses, Noble Lords and Faithful Followers, simultaneously affirming, however, that if they refuse him money again, the spending of money without approval will unfortunately be 'unavoidable' again. I still do not see how the conflict can thereby be resolved, even with this Chamber. Then there is a German, or RATHER North German parliament as well, about whose possible position or at least powers Mr Eulenburg has resolutely refused to give any information whatsoever — there are splendid prospects for a dust-up before long. Bismarck himself will surely seek to avoid a dispute, he is not that stupid, but that old brute of a Hohenzollern is bound to embroil himself, and then he will be amazed at the intelligence of his bayonets.[367]
That we shall soon be back to bashing is clear enough. I believe things will come to a head with the French. Bonaparte is shrewd enough to want to avoid this as long as at all possible, but the mass of Frenchmen, in particular the bourgeoisie, with their distaste for any strengthening of Germany, really is too short-sighted and fanatical to be denied the expansion de la France qui ne peut avoir
lieu que du côté de l'Allemagne,b and war against Prussia is also popular with the peasants and more stupid workers; therefore there is no telling how soon the storm will break.
Wehner, who has just returned from Hanover, tells me that the Prussian officers have already made themselves thoroughly hated there, too, likewise the bureaucrats and police.
I shall probably not spend long in Germany this year either. What with the exhalation of the victors in the North and the Republicans bawling out their enthusiasm for the Elector of Hessec in the South, where ought one to go? I shall attempt to go into the Harz by a roundabout route, there are fortunately no garrisons there.
The Kölnische Zeitung is now screaming with much frothing at the mouth for the exclusion of South Germany. This is the catchword put out by Bismarck to facilitate Bonaparte's retreat, and the Kölnische is storming in this direction with such insane fervour that one sees through the whole nonsense immediately. No paper has yet behaved quite so vilely as this one. Having been most vociferously shouting for peace, it leapt into the contrary
177. Marx to Engels. 7 August
stance as soon as it saw that Bismarck with his cry of 'Austria wants war! Up and at 'em!' was not to be put off the scent, and ever since it has been Bismarck's best friend, at least in good will if not in finesse. It is his lap-dog in the press.
If the new breech-loading gun the American showed to the government here is the Snider-Enfield, it is not up to much. It was most probably another one you were referring to.a Incidentally, a more rapid rate of fire than that already achieved by the needle-gun is of little consequence, as in practice the difference is virtually reduced to zero; on the other hand, greater precision and accuracy of aim are now becoming increasingly important. I am just re-reading Griesheim's tacticsb—how outdated almost all of it already is now!
Kindest regards to the LADIES.
Your
F. E.
177
MARX TO ENGELS[368]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 7 August 1866
Dear FRED,
You inferred correctly from my last letter that my state of health has improved, although it fluctuates from one day to the next. Meanwhile, the feeling of being fit to work again DOES MUCH FOR A MAN. Unfortunately, I am constantly interrupted by SOCIAL TROUBLES and lose a lot of time. Thus, for example, the butcher has suspended meat supplies today, and by Saturday even my stock of paper will be used up.
Since yesterday Laura is half promised to Monsieur Lafargue, my medical Creole. She treats him like the others, but the outbursts of feeling these Creoles are subject to, a slight fear that the jeune homme'' (he is 25) might do away with himself, etc., some fondness for him, undemonstrative as always with Laura (he is a good-looking, intelligent, energetic lad of athletic build), have more or less led to a semi-compromise. The boy attached himself to me first of all, but soon transferred the ATTRACTION from the old man to his daughter. His economic circumstances are middling, as he is the only child of a former planter-family.b He is rayé de l'université de Paris pour deux ans,c on account of the congrès à Liège,[269] but intends to sit his examination at Strasbourg. In my judgment, he has an outstanding gift for medicine, in which he is, however, infinitely more sceptical than our friend Gumpert. Scepticism in medical matters appears to be the order of the day with both professors and students in Paris. E. g., Magendie, who declares all therapeutics, in their present STATE, to be fraudulent. As always, this scepticism not only does not exclude CROTCHETS, but embraces them. E. g., Lafargue believes in alcohol and electricity as the chief cures. Fortunately, he is having a good adviser in Professor Carrère, a refugee (hautes mathématiques,6 physics and chemistry), and will be able to acquire much practical experience in the London hospitals. I have managed to get him admitted there through the good offices of a third party.
A very important work which I shall send on to you (but on condition that you send it back, as it is not my property) as soon as I have made the necessary notes, is: 'P. Trémaux, Origine et
Transformations de l'Homme et des autres Etres, Paris 1865.' In spite of all the shortcomings that I have noted, it represents a very significant advance over Darwin. The two chief theses are: croisements* do not produce, as is commonly thought, variety, but, on the contrary, a unity typical of the espèces.1 The physical features of the earth, on the other hand, differentiate (they are the chief, though not the only basis). Progress, which Darwin regards as purely accidental, is essential here on the basis of the stages of the earth's development, dégénérescence? which Darwin cannot explain, is straightforward here; ditto the rapid extinction of merely transitional forms, compared with the slow development of the type of the espèce, so that the gaps in palaeontology, which Darwin finds disturbing, are necessary here. Ditto the fixity of the
espèce, once established, which is explained as a necessary law (apart from individual, etc., variations). Here hybridisation, which raises problems for Darwin, on the contrary supports the system, as it is shown that an espèce is in fact first established as soon as
croisement with others ceases to produce offspring or to be possible, etc.
In its historical and political applications far more significant and pregnant than Darwin. For certain questions, such as nationality, etc., only here has a basis in nature been found. E.g., he corrects the Pole Duchinski, whose version of the geological differences between Russia and the Western Slav lands he does incidentally confirm, by saying not that the Russians are Tartars rather than Slavs, etc.," as the latter believes, but that on the surface-formation predominant in Russia the Slav has been tartarised and mongolised; likewise (he spent a long time in Africa) he shows that the common negro type is only a degeneration of a far higher one.
'Hors des grandes lois de la nature, les projets des hommes ne sont que calamités, témoins les efforts des czars pour faire du peuple polonais des Moscovites. [...] Même nature, mêmes facultés, renaîtront sur un même sol. L'œuvre de destruction ne saurait toujours durer, l'œuvre de reconstitution est éternelle... Les races slaves et lithuaniennes ont avec les Moscovites, leur véritable limite dans la grande ligne géologique qui existe au nord des bassins du Niémen et du Dnieper... Au sud de cette grande ligne: les aptitudes et les types propres à cette région sont et demeureront toujours différents de ceux de la Russie.'b
[P. Trémaux, Origine et transformations de l'homme..., pp. 402, 420, 421.]
Salut
Your
K. M.
178. Engels to Marx. 10 August
178
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 10 August 1866
Dear Moor,
I don't know whether I should offer full, semi- or no congratulations at all on Laura's semi-engagement. But whatever quantity of congratulations may be admissible, it affects their quality not a wit, and I therefore congratulate with all my heart.
About how much does the Trémaux book" cost? If it is not excessively dear on account of illustrations or anything, I'll get it myself, and then you won't need to send it to me.
To allay your butcher's wrath and replenish your stock of paper, I am enclosing J/F 65865 and 66, 2 £5 notes totalling £10, dated Manchester, 30 January 1865. I wish that I could set aside more than £200 a year for you, but unfortunately I cannot. If all goes well, it is true that I shall probably be able to provide another £50, but cotton is falling again now, and Bonaparte's note concerning the 1814 frontiers[369] is alarming the philistine, and that affects the accounts.
That note of Bonaparte's seems to indicate that a HITCH has cropped up between him and Bismarck. Otherwise, his demand would surely not have been so discourteous and unexpected, nor would it have been made at such a very inopportune moment for Bismarck. Bismarck undoubtedly stands to lose nothing by complying with it, but how can he do so now? What will his victorious army say to it? And the German parliament, and the Chambers, and the South Germans? And the old jackass,b who will now look as idiotically beatific as my black and white dog Dido when he's eaten his belly full, and who has said, not an inch of German soil, etc.?
The note was a great folly on Bonaparte's part, but the howling of the opposition and probably of the army, too, will presumably have forced him to precipitate the matter. It may turn out to be exceedingly dangerous for him. Either Bismarck enables a concession to be made, and then he will be forced to start a war with Bonaparte at the earliest opportunity in order to take his
179. Marx to Paul Lafargue. 13 August
revenge; or else he may not give way, and then there will be war even sooner. In either case, Bonaparte runs the risk of fighting a war he does not want and without the appropriate diplomatic preparation, without any sure allies, for the publicly avowed purpose of conquest. Incidentally, Bismarck told the Hanoverian minister Platen several years ago that he would put Germany under the Prussian helmet and then lead it against the French in order to 'forge it into one'.[370]
Circulars are circulating here for a 'Kinkel-fête', put round by Leppoc, 'a great poet and a great man', on the occasion of Gottfried-the-Pious' departure for Zurich. I have said I am willing to take part in it for the sum of one farthing.
With kindest regards to your wife and the girls.
Your
F. E.
179
MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE[371]
IN LONDON
London, 13 August 1866
My dear Lafargue,
Allow me to make the following observations:
1. If you wish to continue your relations with my daughter,[3] you will have to give up your present manner of 'courting'. You know full well that no engagement has been entered into, that as yet everything is undecided. And even if she were formally betrothed to you, you should not forget that this is a matter of long duration. The practice of excessive intimacy is especially inappropriate since the two lovers will be living at the same place for a necessarily prolonged period of severe testing and purgatory. I have observed with alarm how your conduct has altered from one day to the next within the geological period of one single week. To my mind, true love expresses itself in reticence, modesty and even the shyness of the lover towards the object of his veneration, and certainly not in giving free rein to one's passion and in premature demonstrations of familiarity. If you should urge your Creole temperament in your defence, it is my duty to interpose my sound reason between your temperament and my daughter. If in her presence you are incapable of loving in a manner in keeping with the London latitude, you will have to resign yourself to loving her from a distance. I am sure you will take the hint.
2. Before your relationship with Laura is finally settled, I must have proper clarification of your financial position. My daughter believes that I am conversant with your affairs. She is mistaken. I did not raise this question because I believed it was incumbent upon you to take the initiative. You know that I have sacrificed my whole fortune to the revolutionary struggle. I do not regret it. Quite the contrary. If I had to begin my life over again, I would do the same. I would not marry, however. As far as it lies within my power, I wish to save my daughter from the reefs on which her mother's life was wrecked. Had it not been for my direct intervention (a weakness on my part) and the influence that my friendship for you exerted on my daughter's conduct, this affair would never have progressed to its present point; for this reason I bear a heavy personal responsibility. As far as your immediate situation is concerned, the information which has come my way, although I did not seek it, is by no means reassuring. But let's not deal with that now. Regarding your position in general, I know that you are still a student, that your career in France has been half ruined by the events at Liège,[269] that you still lack an indispensable tool for your acclimatisation in England, the language, and that your prospects are at best entirely problematic. Observation has persuaded me that you are not very industrious by nature, despite spasmodic feverish activity and good intentions. In these circumstances, you will need external support if you are to set out in life with my daughter. I know nothing of your family. Although they may enjoy a comfortable living, that does not in itself mean that they would be disposed to make sacrifices for you. I do not even know with what favour they regard your proposed alliance. I repeat that I must have positive clarification on all these matters. Moreover, as an avowed realist, you cannot, of course, expect that I should behave as an idealist in respect of my daughter's future. Such a positive person as yourself, who would
180. Marx to Engels. 13 August
abolish poetry, will not wish to make poetry to the detriment of my child.
3. To preclude any misinterpretation of this letter, I would like to state that — were you in a position to enter into matrimony today — it would not come about. My daughter would refuse. I myself should object. You must have achieved something in life before thinking of marriage, and a long period of testing is required of you and of Laura.
4. I would like this letter to remain confidential between ourselves. I await your reply.
Yours very truly
Karl Marx
180
MARX TO ENGELS[26]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 13 août* 1866
DEAR FRED,
Lenchenb reached the post-office too late on Saturday to send off my note gratefully acknowledging receipt of the £10.
You must forgive me if I do not write a letter today. I have the most pressing business on my back. I wrote a long letter in French to Laiargue today, telling him that I must have des renseignements positifs1' from his family concerning his economic circumstances before the affair can proceed or an ARRANGEMENT can be arrived at.d
A letter that he passed to me yesterday from a famous French doctor" in Paris speaks well of him.
The title of the book:: 'P. Trémaux: Origine et Transformations de l'Homme et des autres Êtres. Première Partie. Paris (Librairie de
181. Marx to Engels. 23 August
L. Hachette) 1865.' Part Two has not yet appeared. No planches? The man's geological MAPS are in his other works.
Snippet from Liebknecht enclosed. I shall be sending you his newspapers,b too, but they are not worth a pinch of snuff.[372]
Salut.
Your
K. M.
I shall also be getting the chief work by the above-mentioned Parisian médecin" and will let you have it as soon as I have read it myself.
181
MARX TO ENGELS[373]
IN MANCHESTER
London, 23 August 1866
DEAR FRED,
Just a few lines today. The Lafargue affair has been arranged inasmuch as his old mand has written to me from Bordeaux, requesting the title of promesso sposoe for his son and offering a very favourable economic settlement. Furthermore, it is accepted that Lafargue jeune1 first has to qualify as a doctor in London and then in Paris before thinking of marriage. So FAR THE THING is SETTLED. But I also informed our Creole yesterday that if he cannot calm himself DOWN to English manners, Laura will show him the door without more ado. He must be absolutely clear about this or nothing will come of the affair. He has a heart of gold but is an enfant gâtég and too much a child of nature.
182. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 23 August
Laura declares that before she will formally let herself become betrothed, she must have your CONSENT.
I am threatened with new carbuncles here and there, but they keep disappearing again; they do, however, oblige me to keep my hours of work very much WITHIN LIMITS
Kindest regards to Lizzy.[1]
Salut.
Your
K. M.
182
MARX TO LUDWIG KIGELMANN[15]
IN HANOVER
London, 23 August 1866
My dear Friend,
You must justifiably be angered by my prolonged silence, despite your sundry friendly communications.
However, you will have to excuse me, on account of the extraordinary circumstances in which I find myself.
In consequence of my long illness, my economic situation has reached a point of crisis. I have accumulated debts, which are a crushing mental burden and make me incapable of any activity other than the work in which I am immersed. If I do not succeed in taking out a loan of at least 1,000 talers at an interest of say 5%, I can really see no way out. And despite the numerous letters of acknowledgement I receive from Germany, I do not know where to turn. I can only accept aid from personal friends, nothing public. You will understand that in such conditions letter-writing becomes difficult.
I have not yet succeeded in re-establishing my former lucrative links with America.[374] They are so taken up with their own
183. Engels to Emil Engels. 23 August
movement there that they regard any expenditure on European reports as faux frais de production(1) I could help them by emigrating myself. But I consider it my duty to remain in Europe and complete the work on which I have been engaged for so many years.b
As regards that work itself, I do not think I shall be able to deliver the manuscript of the first volume (it has now grown to 3 volumes[227]) to Hamburg before October. I can only work productively for a very few hours per day without immediately feeling the effects physically, and for my family's sake I suppose I must, however unwillingly, resolve to observe the hygienic limits until I am fully recovered. My work is furthermore often interrupted by the impingement of adverse external circumstances.
Although I am devoting much time to the preparations for the congress in Geneva,[375] I cannot go myself, nor do I wish to, because my work cannot be subjected to prolonged interruption. I consider that what I am doing through this work is far more important for the working class than anything I might be able to do personally at any congrès quelconque.c
I regard the international situation in Europe as only temporary. As regards Germany in particular, we must take things as we find them,[376] i.e., promote the interests of revolution in a manner appropriate to the changed conditions. As TO PRUSSIA, it is now more important than ever TO WATCH AND TO DENOUNCE her RELATIONS TO RUSSIA.
Your very sincere friend
K. Marx
183
ENGELS TO EMIL ENGELS
IN ENGELSKIRCHEN
_, „ ., Manchester, 23 August 1866 Dear Emit,
In great haste, just to ask you to send the Funke document not to me but to
184. Marx to Laura Marx. 28 August
Hall & Janison, SOLICITORS, Manchester, as soon as it is signed.
I am leaving for Germany tomorrow,[377] you see. Kind regards to everyone. I am thinking of coming to Engelskirchen after Marie Blank's wedding.
Your
Friedrich
184
MARX TO LAURA MARX
IN HASTINGS
[London,] 28 August 1866
My dear Cacadou,(1)
I have received your letter, but not unopened, since it had to pass through the fingered hands of the Emperor.b
It was always my opinion that to give the last finishing stroke to your 'heducation' some sort of boarding school training was still wanted. It will do you a great deal of good.
II hidalgo délia figura tristac left me at the corner of his house. His heart having been considerably shaken before, he seemed to bear his separation from me with a rather heroic indifference.
My best wishes to ±oo:p.d
I enclose 5 1., the remainder to be sent in the second week.
Yours humbly
Old One
185. Marx to Johann Philipp Becker. 31 August
Mama will start upon her own expedition to-morrow or after-to-morrow.[378] A great push was wanted to set her amoving.
185
MARX T O J O H A N N PHILIPP BECKER [1]
IN GENEVA:>
[London,] 31 August 1866
Dear Becker,
It is absolutely imperative that Jung be made President of the congress, [3]' [5]
1. because he speaks the 3 languages, English, French, and German.
2. J u n g truly represents the CENTRAL COUNCIL, Odger (who furthermore only knows his mother-tongue) was not elected by the CENTRAL COUNCIL; we elected 4 delegates, with Jung at the head; Odger was only to go if he could raise the money himself (guaranteed by us, of course). He has done nothing for the Association.
3. Cremer and Odger have hatched a very mean plot to prevent Jung and Eccarius leaving on the very last day.
4. Odger wishes to be elected President of the congress as a means of impressing the English and imposing himself as President of the CENTRAL COUNCIL for next year, against the wish of the great majority of the COUNCIL. 5. Cremer and Odger have both betrayed us in the Reform League, where they came to a compromise with the bourgeoisie against our wishes.[315]
6. Mr Cremer has morally debased himself completely. All his efforts are now aimed at securing a 'paid'' post for himself, so that he need not work. In no circumstances must he therefore be elected as General Secretary by the congress. (The only paid post.) They
186. Marx to Eleanor Marx. 5 September
must elect Fox, on the pretext, which is incidentally true, that the General Secretary must know more than one language.
9.[1]' The President of the CENTRAL COUNCIL must not be elected by the congress but here in London, as a figure of merely local importance.
10. At the election of the President for the congress, you must say at the outset that an international congress can only be presided over by a man who can speak the various languages, simply to save time, etc.
11. Convey this to Dupleix. 12. I should be glad if you would get Eccarius to translate the instructions'(1) which I wrote in the name of the CENTRAL COMMITTEE for the London delegates into German beforehand.
Regards and handshake.
Your
Karl Marx
186
MARX TO ELEANOR MARX
IN HASTINGS
[London,] 5 September 1866
My beloved master ±oo+.
I bow to the earth before your immensity, whatever part you may condescend to act, that of the infinitely small or the infinitely grand.
Your letters have enchanted us, and we were really bursting out with laughter on reading that fine passage in which you describe the spontaneous explosion produced by the exhibition spinster.
I am belaboured by a gorilla offspringc who can hardly spend the separation from a velvet mouse he has put his mind upon.(2) If he knew her, as well as I do, he would, of course, be still more Calypso, qui ne pouvait se consoler du départ d'Ulysse? She may be a Calypso, but he is not an Ulysses, with all that. A spoonzy fellow rather. However, he deserves some praise at my hands. He has worked hard (from 1 o'clock p.m. to 9) in translating the instructions[6] I had to draw up for the Geneva Congress delegates.(3)'b He has worked not less hard as a tailor at certain gymnastic apparatus you are to use. Last, not least, he affects great attention to the scientific gabble I affect to treat him with, although he and myself are far away from the scene of the mental entertainment.
The day before yesterday the Lormiers were here and the Negrillo,c too. Old Lormier, on the pretext of having to communicate him some gymnastic trick, told him 'secretly' and discreetly, of course, he must stop that fountain of saliva which, while smoking, he is in the habit of inundating the chimney with. When both returned from the kitchen, where the secret communication was taking place, our poor Negrillo looked rather downcast, and behaved like a 'good boy'.
In fact, I liked the boy, at the same time, I think, rather jealous of his encroachments upon my old 'geheimsecretar'.d
Don't forget to write me immediately what you have to pay per week.
The damned weather! I hope it will still mend. Address of Memelitene: 'Mrs Goodbun, Rose and Crown, Dover.' Adio, my dear child. Many kisses to you and to the immortal Cacadou,
Yours
00
You don't want to write to Mama, as she probably leaves Dover on Friday for another watering-place.
188. Marx to Engels. 26 September
187. Marx to Laura Marx. About 8 September[1]
You must excuse if I write those few lines only. We want the inclosed Post Office Order for £3 to leave with the first Post, that is before 11 o'clock a.m. You will oblige me by writing us with what train you will leave Hastings next week, and when you will arrive here?
Poor child, your toothache would have been spared to you, if my advice had been followed and my own 'dentist' resorted to.
Your last letter has given much pleasure (the toothache news excepted) because we saw from it with what calm energy our Cacadou knows how to act.
Tell Quoquo b that mischief is brewing. The Emperorc fancies to be neglected by his subjects and feels rather sore.
Yours truly
Old One
188
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 26 September 1866 DEAR FRED,
Receipt enclosed for Moore (I only got the receipt from Dell yesterday).[379]
Mr Sawyer, the LANDLORD, has also written me letter that the 3 quarters (£46) are due on 2 October. I have not received a FARTHING from Holland yet and so cannot count on that.
By way of demonstration against the French monsieurs — who wanted to exclude everyone except 'travailleurs manuels',>l in the first instance from membership of the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, or at least from eligibility for election as delegate to the congress— the English yesterday proposed me as President of the CENTRAL COUNCIL. I declared that under no circumstances could I accept such a thing, and proposed Odger in my turn, who was then in fact re-elected, although some people voted for me despite my declaration. Dupont, incidentally, has given me the key to the Tolain and Fribourg operation. They want to stand as workers' candidates for the Corps législatif(1) in 1869, on the 'principle' that only workers can represent the workers. That is why it was exceedingly important for these gentlemen to get this principle proclaimed through the Congress.[380]
At yesterday's meeting of the CENTRAL COUNCIL there were all manner of dramatic scenes. E.g., Mr Cremer fell to earth with a bump when Fox was appointed General Secretary in his stead. He controlled his fury only with great difficulty. Another scene when Mr Le Lubez had to be officially informed of his expulsion from the CENTRAL COUNCIL par décretb' of the congress. He gave vent to the turmoil in his breast in an hour-long speech, in which he spat fire and brimstone at the Parisians, represented himself in terms of astonishing self-esteem and mumbled all manner of dubious things about intrigues whereby the nationalities who were well-disposed towards him (Belgium and Italy) were prevented from attending the congress. Finally, he demanded a vote of confidence from the Central Council'[81]—and this will be discussed next Tuesday.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
189. Marx to Engels. 1 October
189
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 1 October 1866
Dear Engels,
I do not know whether I told you last time I wrote that there is a bill of exchange (no longer in the LANDLORD'S hands) outstanding against me for the rent. Sawyer had written that the bill was due on the 2nd inst., i.e., tomorrow. I called on him yesterday, as by my reckoning the thing could not be due until 3 October, as I had drawn the bill on 1 July for 3 MONTHS, so that 3 days sight must be added. And it turned out I was right. The amount is £46 (3 QUARTERS), and I have been sans sou" for many weeks, since the SMALL SUMS, which were still obtainable via pawnbrokers, dried up.
As I am furthermore now HARD PRESSED from the daily 'supplies' which have once more accumulated in recent months and in present circumstances (Lafargue) must avoid any éclath more than ever, I would leave for the Continent at once to see what I can arrange there 'personally'. However, I must defer that until my manuscript' is completed, so that I can take it with me and am not subjected to fresh interruption.
You must forgive me for constantly BorHERing and plaguing you with my private morass. I had put too much reliance on having the money from Holland.
Your
K. Marx
What do you think of Moilin?d
190. Engels to Marx. 2 October
190
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 2 October 1866
Dear Moor,
You did not tell me that you had signed a bill for £46, which was why I sent you half notes for only £40 yesterday; the missing halves follow today, as well as a further five-pound-note I/F 98815, Manchester, 30 January 1865.
Our cashier has not got a second five-pound-note, and it's too late for a POST OFFICE order, so I cannot include the remaining SOVEREIGN; but you will no doubt surmount that difficulty.
Regarding Moilin(1) and Trémaux,b I will write at greater length in the next few days; I have not quite finished reading the latter yet, but I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing to his whole theory because he knows nothing of geology, and is incapable of even the most common-or-garden literary-historical critique. That stuff about the NIGGER Santa Maria and the whites turning into Negroes is enough to make one die of laughing.[382]
Especially the idea that the traditions of the Senegal NIGGERS necessarily deserve credence, just because these fellows cannot write] In addition, it is another pretty notion of his to ascribe the differences between a Basque, a Frenchman, a Breton, and an Alsatian to the surface-structure, which is, of course, also to blame for the people speaking four different languages.
Perhaps the man will demonstrate in the 2nd volume how he explains that we Rhinelanders on our Devonian transitional massif (which has not been covered again by the sea since long before the coal was formed) did not become idiots and NIGGERS ages ago, or else he will assert that we are really NIGGERS.
The book is utterly worthless, pure theorising in defiance of all the facts, and for each piece of evidence it cites it should itself first provide evidence in turn.
191. Marx to Engels. 3 October
Kindest regards to the LADIES.
Your
F. E.
191
MARX TO ENGELS[243]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 3 October 1866
Dear Engels,
The enclosed bill will give you some idea of what adventures I have had today and yesterday. It was not yesterday that it became due, as Sawyer had said. This delay of one day would have been welcome in other circumstances, but in present circumstances it was exceedingly unfortunate. When your letter arrived yesterday, I went straight to our baker, Whithers, as there was nothing left to pawn, and borrowed £1 from him. But when the bill arrived this morning, it was for £48-l-5d. and not, as I had thought, £46. It was my own fault, of course, for not noting the amount. I had thought Sawyer would have deducted the PROPRIETOR TAX which I had paid and which was not deducted from the previous bill (by law it falls on him). That was not the case. (He will therefore have to deduct the whole lot for next quarter.) Hence my mistake over the £46. The bill was presented this morning at 9 o'clock sharp, and I discovered to my horror that I was £2-l-5d. short. Que
faire?" I asked the presenter of the bill to wait (at our house), as I had to go and change some money. I had no alternative but to return to the good baker, who pulled a very long face, as I am deep in the red on account of his supplying of provisions. However, he performed.
192. Engels to Marx. 5 October
Ad voceiri[1] Trémauxb: your verdict 'that there is nothing to his whole theory because he knows nothing of geology, and is incapable of even the most common-or-garden literary-historical critique" recurs almost word for word in Cuvier's 'Discours sur les Révolutions du Globe' in his attack on the doctrine of the
variabilité des espèces,d in which he makes fun of German nature-worshippers, among others, who formulated Darwin's basic idea in its entirety, however far they were from being able to prove it. However, that did not prevent Cuvier, who was a great geologist and for a naturalist also an exceptional literary-historical critic, from being wrong, and the people who formulated the new idea, from being right. Trémaux's basic idea about the influence of the soil (although he does not, of course, attach any value to historical modifications of this influence, and I myself would include amongst these historical modifications the chemical altera-tion in the surface soil brought about by agriculture, etc., as well as the varying influence which, with varying modes of production, such things as coalfields, etc., have) is, in my opinion, an idea which needs only to be formulated to acquire permanent scientific status, and that quite independently of the way Trémaux presents it.
Salut.
Your
K. Marx
Published first time
F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, _ , ,. , , . _ . . . . ,. ,, , iqio Published in hngash in lull for the
192
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 5 October 1866
Dear Moor,
I am tickled by your naivety in having bills outstanding against you without knowing the amount; however, it's lucky the difference was no bigger and the good baker was at hand. So that you can repay the sum in question to that excellent man at once and thus preserve your credit, I am enclosing £5 I/F 59667, Manchester, 30 January 1865, for you, and am also returning the bill now settled.
Ad vocem" Trémaux. When I wrote to you, I had admittedly only read a third of the book, and that was certainly the worst part (at the beginning). The second third, the critique of the schools, is far better; the third, the conclusions, very bad again. The man deserves credit for having emphasised the effect of the 'soil' on the evolution of races and logically of species as well more than had previously been done, and secondly for having worked out more accurate (though, in my view, still very one-sided) views on the effects of crossing than his predecessors. In one respect, Darwin is also right in his views on the effect crossing has in producing change, as Trémaux incidentally tacitly acknowledges, in that, when it suits him to do so, he also treats crossing as a means of change, even if ultimately as one that cancels itself out. Similarly, Darwin and others have never failed to appreciate the effect of the soil, and if they did not especially emphasise it, this was because they had no notion of how the soil exerts an influence — other than that fertility has a favourable and infertility an unfavourable effect. And Trémaux is little the wiser about that either. The hypothesis that, as a general rule, the soil favours the development of higher species to the extent that it belongs to more recent formations, sounds exceedingly plausible and may or may not be correct; however, when I see the ridiculous evidence with which Trémaux seeks to substantiate it, of which [9]/(1) is based on erroneous or distorted facts and the remaining '/,„ proves nothing, I cannot but extend the profound suspicions I have of the author of the hypothesis to the hypothesis itself. But when he then goes on to declare that the effect of the soil's greater or lesser age, modified by crossing, is the sole cause of change in organic species or races, I see absolutely no reason to go along with the man thus far, on the contrary, I see numerous objections to so doing.
You say that Cuvier also criticised the German natural philosophers for their ignorance of geology when they proclaimed the mutability of species, and yet they were proved right.b At that time, however, the question had nothing to do with geology; but if someone puts forward a theory of the mutability of species based on geology alone and makes such geological howlers in it, falsifies the geology of whole countries (e.g., Italy and even France) and takes the rest of his examples from countries of whose geology we are as good as totally ignorant (Africa, Central Asia, etc.), then that is altogether a different matter. With regard to the ethnological examples in particular, the ones that concern countries and peoples which are generally known are almost without exception erroneous, either in their geological premisses or in the conclusions drawn from them — and he completely ignores the many contrary examples, e.g., the alluvial plains in Central Siberia, the enormous alluvial basin of the River Amazon, all the alluvial land southward from La Plata almost to the southern tip of America (east of the Cordilleras).
That the geological structure of the soil is closely related to the 'soil' in which everything grows is an old idea, likewise that this soil which is able to support vegetation influences the flora and fauna that subsist on it. It is also true that this influence has as yet been scarcely examined at all. But it is a colossal leap from there to Trémaux's theory. At all events, he deserves credit for having emphasised this previously neglected aspect, and, as I said, the hypothesis that the soil encourages evolution in proportion to its greater or lesser geological age, may be correct within certain limits (or again it may not), but all the further conclusions he draws I consider to be either totally mistaken or incredibly one-sided and exaggerated.
I was very interested by Moilin's book," particularly for the results the French have obtained by vivisection; it is the only way to ascertain the functions of certain nerves and the effects of interfering with them; these fellows appear to have taken the art of animal-torture to a very high level of perfection; and I can very well understand the hypocritical fury of the English against vivisection; these experiments no doubt came as a most unpleasant surprise to many of the comatose gentlemen here and overturned many of their speculations. Whether there is anything new in the theory of inflammations, I am in no position to judge (I intend giving the book to Gumpert); this whole new French school does, however, appear to have a certain free-and-easy character, making big claims and being rather less scrupulous with evidence. As regards medicines, it contains nothing that any competent German doctor does not also know and accept; Moilin just forgets that 1. one is often obliged to choose the lesser evil, medicine, in order to get rid of the greater, namely, a symptom which in itself represents a direct danger, in exactly the same way that by surgery one destroys tissues where there is no alternative, and 2. that one does have to stick to the medicines for as long as one has nothing better. As soon as Moilin can cure syphilis with his electricity, mercury will soon vanish, but scarcely until then. Incidentally, no one can go on telling me that only the Germans can 'construct' systems, THE FRENCH BEAT THEM HOLLOW AT THAT. Kindest regards.
Your
F. E.
193. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 9 October[65]
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill
Dear Friend,
I hope I must not conclude from your lengthy silence that my last letterb has in any way offended you. The case should be quite the reverse. Any person, who is in desperate straits, sometimes feels the need to ventilate his feelings. But he only does so to people in whom he has a special and exceptional confidence. I do assure you that my domestic troubles disquiet me far more for being an obstacle to the completion of my work' than for any personal or family reasons. I could dispose of the whole problem tomorrow if I were prepared to take up a practical trade tomorrow, instead of working for the cause. And I equally hope that you are not embarrassed by the fact that you can do nothing to alleviate my plight. That would indeed be the most unreasona-ble of reasons.
And now to some more general matters. I was profoundly apprehensive about the first congress in Geneva.[373] By and large, however, it went off better than I expected. We had not in the least anticipated the effect it would have in France, England and America. I was unable to attend, nor did I wish to, but I did write the programme for the London delegates." I deliberately confined it to points which allow direct agreement and combination of efforts by the workers and give direct sustenance and impetus to the requirements of the class struggle and the organisation of the workers into a class. The Parisian gentlemen had their heads stuffed full of the most vacuous Proudhonist clichés. They prattle incessantly about science and know nothing. They spurn all revolutionary action, i.e. arising from the class struggle itself, every concentrated social movement, and therefore also that which can be achieved by political means (e.g., such as limitation of the working day by law). Beneath the cloak of freedom and anti-governmentalism or anti-authoritarian individualism these gentlemen, who for 16 years now have so quietly endured the most wretched despotism, and are still enduring it, are in actuality preaching vulgar bourgeois economics, only in the guise of Proudhonist idealism! Proudhon has done enormous harm. His pseudo-critique and his pseudo-confrontation with the Utopians (he himself is no more than a philistine Utopian, whereas the Utopias of such as Fourier, Owen, etc., contain the presentiment and visionary expression of a new world) seized hold of and corrupted first the 'jeunesse brillante','' the students, then the workers, especially those in Paris, who as workers in luxury trades are, without realising it,themselves deeply implicated in the garbage of the past. Ignorantly vain, arrogant, compulsively talkative, rhetorically inflated, they were on the verge of spoiling everything, as they flocked to the congress in numbers quite out of proportion to the number of their members. In my REPORT I shall give them a discreet rap over the knuckles.
I was exceedingly pleased at the American workers' congress, which took place at the same time in Baltimore. The watchword there was organisation for the struggle against capital, and, remarkably enough, most of the demands I had put up for Geneva were put up there, too, by the correct instinct of the workers.[383] The reform movement here, which was called into being by our Central Council (quorum magna pars fui''), has now assumed enormous and irresistible dimensions.[155] I have always kept behind the scenes and have not further concerned myself with the matter since it has been under way.
Your
K. Marx
Apropos. The Workman(1) is a philistine paper, and has nothing to do with us. The Commonwealth belongs to our people, but has for the moment transformed itself purely into a mouthpiece for Reform (partly for economic and partly for political reasons).
I have recently read Dr T. Moilin: 'Leçons de Médecine Physiologi-que', which came out in Paris in 1865. A lot of fanciful ideas in it and too much 'construing'. But a lot of criticism of traditional therapeutics, too. I would be glad if you would read the book and let me have your opinion in detail. I would also recommend to you Trémaux: 'De l'origine de tous les êtres, etc' Although written in a slovenly way, full of geological howlers and seriously deficient in literary-historical criticism, it represents — WITH AI I THAT AND AIL THAI — an advance over Darwin.b
194. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 13 Octoberc
Dear Friend,
Since I wish to reply to you at once and your letter has arrived just before the Post closes (and no post goes from here tomorrow, Sunday), I shall summarise the quintessence of my INTERCEPTED LETTER[384] in a few words. (This confiscation of letters is certainly not at all pleasant, as I have not the slightest desire to make Mr Bismarck a confidant to my private affairs. If, on the other hand, he wishes to know my views on his policies, he can approach me direct, and I am sure I shall not mince my words.)
My economic situation has deteriorated so much following my prolonged illness and the many expenses it entailed that I am faced with a financial crisis in the immediate future, something which, quite apart from its direct effects on myself and family, would also be ruinous for me politically, especially here in London, where one must keep up appearances. What I wanted to find out from you was this: do you know anyone, or a few people (under no circumstances must the affair become public), who could advance me about 1,000 talers at an interest rate of 5 or 6% for at least 2 years? I am now paying 20-50% interest for the small sums I am borrowing, but for all that I can no longer keep the creditors at bay, with the result that the old firm is about to come crashing down about my ears.
Since my penultimate letter to you(1) I have suffered another series of relapses and have consequently only been able to pursue my theoretical work very intermittently. (The practical work for the International Association goes on as ever, and there is a lot of it, as I am in fact having to run the whole Association myself.) I shall be sending the first sheetsb to Meissner next month, and will continue to do so until I go to Hamburg with the remainder myself. At all events, I shall take that opportunity to call on you.
My circumstances (endless interruptions, both physical and social) oblige me to publish Volume One first, not both volumes together, as I had originally intended. And there will now probably be 3 volumes.
The whole work is thus divided into the following parts:
Book I. The Process of Production of Capital. Book II. The Process of Circulation of Capital. Book III. Structure of the Process as a Whole. Book IV. On the History of the Theory. The first volume will include the first 2 books. The 3rd book will, I believe, fill the second volume, the 4th the 3rd.[227]
It was, in my opinion, necessary to begin again ab ovoc in the first book, i. e., to summarise the book of mine published by Dunckerd in one chapter on commodities and money.Ma I judged this to be necessary, not merely for the sake of completeness, but because even intelligent people did not properly understand the question, in other words, there must have been defects in the first presentation, especially in the analysis of commodities Lassalle, e. g., in his Kapital und Arbeit,* in which he claims to give the 'Intellectual quintessence' of my argument, makes serious blunders, which is incidentally something to which he is always prone with his very carefree manner of appropriating my works. It is comical how he even copies my literary-historical 'errors', because, you see, I sometimes quote from memory, without checking things. I have not yet finally made up my mind whether to pass a few remarks in the foreword about Lassalle's plagiarising. The impudence of his disciples towards me would at all events justify it.[105]
The London COUNCIL of the ENGLISH TRADE-UNIONS (its secretary is our President, Odger) is deliberating at the present moment as to whether it should declare itself to be the BRITISH SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION. If it does so, the control of the working class here will IN A CERTAIN SENSE pass into our hands, and we shall be able to give the movement a good 'PUSH ON'.(2)
Salut.
Your
K. Marx
195. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 25 October[65]
These few lines immediately,
1. to thank you for your efforts; 2. to acknowledge receipt of your last letter and of the preceding ones;
196. Marx to Engels. 8 November
3. you misunderstand how things stand between myself and Engels. He is my closest friend. I keep no secrets from him. If it had not been for him, I would long ago have been obliged to start a 'trade'. In no circumstances, therefore, would I wish any third person to intercede with him on my account. There are also, of course, certain limits to what he can do.Wb
4. Dr Jacobi,(1) so I am informed by workers, has become quite a good citizen and should not therefore be importuned in any way with my private affairs.
I shall have to see what I can do, but I do see that you have tried everything that was within your power, and therefore entreat you to consider this matter as settled.
I am not writing for The Commonwealth.
Your
K. M.
Miquel et Co. will have a long time to wait before they become Prussian ministers.b
196
MARX TO ENGELS[6]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 8 November 1866
Dear Engels,
It will not have escaped you that I have not written. I thought you had been informed of the receipt of the £5, as Laura had taken charge of the matter, but, as emerged later, she forgot to do so. I have, furthermore, been in such desperate straits that I was prevented from writing. You know that the £10 which you sent me before your departure [3]" were only for payment of taxes and the subsequent £50 for rent. I have thus been completely broke for months. The so-called legacyc proved to be divided between at
197. Marx to Engels. 10 November
least 20 people, so that the share that fell to me at the beginning of the summer was — 80 talers! My attempts to drum up money in Germany or Holland have all come to nothing. The only thing that still makes us think of the pawnshop (and my wife has pawned so many possessions that she herself can scarcely go out) is the interest it asks for. I thus had to go round London begging small loans left and right, as in our worst refugee days — and that from a limited number of people who are themselves impecuni-ous — to make even the most essential cash purchases. On the other hand, I am being threatened by tradesmen, some of whom have withdrawn their credit and threatened to take me to court. This state of affairs was all the more critical in that Lafargue (until his departure for Bordeaux a few days ago) was constantly in the house and the REAL STATE OK THINGS had to be anxiously concealed from him. Not merely has my work" been frequently interrupted by all this, but by trying to make up at night for the time lost during the day, I have acquired a fine carbuncle near my PENIS. I know you have done everything in your power, and more. But recourse of some kind must be found. Would it not be possible to take up a LOAN or some such transaction? Saint.
Your
K. M.
197
MARX TO ENGELS
IN iMANCHESTER
[London,] 10 November 1866
Dear Engels,
My best thanks for coming to my aid so quickly and ditto for the port wine. I know your own circumstances exactly, and that makes it doubly painful for me thus to put PRESSURE on you. You know, we
198. Engels to Marx. 11 November
really must put an end to this business once and for all, but that will not be possible until I can go to the Continent and act there in person.
Next week the first BATCH of the manuscript" will go off to Meissner at last. This summer and autumn it was really not the theory which caused the delay, but my physical and civil condition. It is just 3 years ago now that the first carbuncle was lanced. Since then I have had only short periods of respite from it, and as Gumpert will confirm, of all types of work, theory is the most unsuitable if one has this devil's brew in one's blood.
As regards the present fellow, it will be cured in the space of ABOUT 14 days. I now know exactly how it has to be treated and I have therefore started taking the arsenic again.
In great haste.
Your
K. Marx
198
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 11 November 1866 86 Mornington St.
Dear Moor,
Many thanks for The Free Press. Can you send me the August and September issues? I have not received them.
Encl. the 2nd halves of the £30. I would have liked to send you more, but I really cannot. I'll see what I can do next month, and on 31 December we shall be doing our accounts again; if they turn out well, no doubt we shall be able to manage a bit more.
The news that the manuscript(1) has gone off is a load off my mind. So, a commencement d'exécutionb at last, as the Code pénal has it.[387] To that end I shall drink a special glass to your particular health. The book has greatly contributed to wrecking your health; once you have got it off your back, you'll be quite a different fellow again.
I hope that Birch despatched the port yesterday, but I am none too sure of it; at all events, however, it is sure to arrive by Monday evening or Tuesday morning.
Prussians will be Prussians. As a reward for voting for the indemnity, Twesten and Frenzel are arraigned for speeches made in the Chamber.[388] Such stupidity is quite incomprehensible, but it is a point of principle.The burghers[3] of Frankfurt are still furious, they are now playing the part of Poles, going about in mourning and wearing cravats with the city colours of Frankfurt.[362] A Prussian lieutenant entered a Sachsenhausen tavern and found all the seats taken. Someone got up in one corner and left, at which his neighbour drew the lieutenant's attention to the empty chair, but he said thank you very much, he did not like to sit on a warm chair. Oh, said the other, you have no need to worry about that, our bums are all freezing since the Prussians have been here.
I have heard the most marvellous stories here from eyewitnesses about the Imperial warfare.b Such things are unprecedented. E.g., the Nassauers were ordered to bridge the Main at Höchst. Having failed once on account of a storm (a storm on the Main!), they found upon their 2nd attempt that they had too few pontoons and could only bridge the Main half-way. They therefore wrote to Darmstadt, asking for the loan of a few pontoons, which did eventually arrive then, and thus the bridge over the horrendous stream was completed. Then the Nassauers immediately received orders to march south. They left the bridge standing, without a guard, merely leaving it to the care of an old boatman to see that it did not drift away down the Main. A few days later, the Prussians arrived, took possession of the completed bridge, fortified it and marched across!
Your
F. E.
199. Marx to François Lafargue. 12 November
199
MARX TO FRANÇOIS LAFARGUE[389]
IN BORDEAUX
London, 12 November 1866
My dear Mr Lafargue,
I hope our friend il amoroso* has apologised to you on my behalf for my inexcusable silence. On the one hand, I have been plagued by constantly recurring illness, on the other, I have been so taken up by a very lengthy workb that I have neglected my correspondence with my closest friends. If I did not count you among that category, I should never have dared so to offend against propriety.
My sincere thanks for the wine. Being myself from a wine-growing region, and former owner of a vineyard,[390] I know a good wine when I come across one. I even incline somewhat to old Luther's view that a man who does not love wine will never be good for anything. (There are exceptions to every rule.) But one cannot, for example, deny that the political movement in England has been spurred on by the commercial treaty with France and the import of French wines.[391] That is one of the good things that Louis Bonaparte was capable of doing, whereas poor Louis Philippe was so intimidated by the manufacturers in the North that he did not dare enter into commercial treaties with England. It is only to be regretted that regimes such as the Napoleonic one, which are founded on the weariness and impotence of the two antagonistic classes of society, buy some material progress at the expense of general demoralisation. Fortunately, the mass of working men cannot be demoralised. Manual labour is the great antidote for all the ills of society.
You will have been just as delighted by the defeat of President Johnson in the latest elections as I was.[392] The workers in the North have at last fully understood that white labour will never be emancipated so long as black labour is still stigmatised.
On Saturday evening Citizen Dupont brought me a letter addressed to Paul' by the secretary of the College of Surgeons. He required some papers which were neither in the possession of my daughter0 (except for his baccalauréat diploma) nor of the person
200. Marx to Paul Lafargue. 7 December
who has charge of your son's effects. You will therefore have to send us these documents at once.
Please be so good as to tell your son that he will greatly oblige me by desisting from propaganda in Paris. This is a dangerous time. The best thing he can do in Paris is to use his time to profit by his association with Dr Moilin. It will do him no harm to spare his polemical strength. The more he holds himself in check, the better he will be as a fighter when the right moment comes.
My daughter asks me to request you to be so kind as to send with Paul some photograms of Madame Lafargue and of yourself.
All my family joins me in greetings to the Lafargue family.
Yours ever
Karl Marx
1958
200
MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE
IN LONDON
[London,] 7 December 1866
My dear Lafargue,
I am so taken up by a piece of work" which must be completed by Monday that I am unable to reply to you at once. Meanwhile, if I have offended you by my brusque monologue, I beg your pardon. One should not lose one's temper even when one is in the right.
Greetings.
Karl Marx
201. Marx to Engels. 8 December
202. Engels to Marx. 14 December
201
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 8 December 1866 Dear FRED,
Meissner has not begun printing yet," as he wanted to finish off some other things first. I am expecting a letter from him next Monday. All in all, I found the delay by no means disagreeable, as I have only been rid of that vile carbuncle for a few days, and, moreover, my creditors are badgering me in a truly edifying manner. I only regret that private persons CAN not FILE THEIR BILLS FOR THE BANKRUPTCY COURT with the same propriety as men of business.
A while ago, Kladderadatsch printed a swipe at the Brimstone Gang in large type, in a bad lampoon on Collins' The Woman in White. The author of this garbage is that miserable Bettziech, and I should not be surprised if the order had emanated from Kinkel or Hatzfeldt. Nor have I any doubt that the old bag was the cause of Liebknecht's arrest.[393]
The Prussian swine are acting precisely as we should wish them to. There will be no progress until heads roll.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
202
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 14 December 1866 Dear Moor,
You just would not believe how overrun I am at present by all manner of folk. Young men recommended by customers, seeking positions here; agents, or such as would like to be so; then this week my most likeable nephew Blanka as well, who has established himself in London — and so it goes on continuously, and you will realise how difficult it is thereby to find the time to write. Then, from time to time, I also get someone arriving on the doorstep like the writer of the enclosed letter[394] and putting a pistol to my breast. When I read the letter, I knew at once who had sent this sterling fellow to plague me — it was good old Dr Rode, as the said sterling fellow indeed confirmed when he came up to my office. This shameless Rode is taking some weird liberties in my regard. First, he makes the silliest kind of trouble between myself and Klings after the latter called here,b and then he even goes so far as to send people like that to plague me, referring them to me as cashier for the whole émigré community. If the fellow attempts anything else of that kind with me, he may be sure of a warm response. Why cannot he leave me be, I do not know him at all?
The Prussian swine are certainly behaving quite splendidly. I would indeed not have imagined them to be quite so stupid, but it is really impossible to imagine them stupid enough. That is all to the good. Things are on the move again now, and the revolution will come all the sooner for it, and this time heads are bound to roll, as you yourself say.
They are locking up the office, and I must close, too. Enclosed two five-pound-notes:
I/S 38969 and I/S 62239, Manchester, 26 January 1866. That is as much as I can risk sending until I know how I stand, and I cannot check on it until the books are made up.
Kindest regards to your wife and children.
Your
F. E.
203. Marx to Engels. 17 December
203
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 17 December 1866
DEAR FRED.
THANKS FOR THE £ 1 0 . As far as Rode is concerned, he is obsessed with political connections and his own self-importance. As you are finding this obsession a nuisance — and JUSTLY SO — you should write to him at the first opportunity saying that you have not the honour of his acquaintance and requesting him to desist from such LIBERTIES.
T h e Revue des deux Mondes and the Revue Contemporaine had two detailed articles on the 'INTERNATIONAL', which treat it and its congress as one of the most significant events of the century. a T h e like also in The Fortnightly Review, in consequence. b Meanwhile, we are in practice paralysed BY WANT OF FUNDS and even OF MEN, with all the English being totally absorbed by the REFORM MOVEMENT. T h e French government is (heureusement) beginning to treat us as enemies. [3 9 5]
One of our more dubious ACQUISITIONS was the joining (AT New York) of HEAD CENTRE [3 9 6] Stephens.
Was not the Pope's d address to the French OFFICERS capital? Only an Italian priest could thus, before the whole of Europe, deliver Bonaparte a kick in the form of a BLESSING.[397]
It is highly characteristic of the status rerume that neither Bonaparte nor William the Conqueror f are quite right in the top DEPARTMENT. T h e latter believes that God Almighty has entrusted him with a special mission, and the former has been TURNED SO TOPSYTURVY by Mexico 2 ? 0 and Bismarck that he sometimes appears positively demented.
And do you not think that there will be peace for another year yet at least (apart from ACCIDENTS, of course, such as the death of Bonaparte, etc.)? T h e fellows all need time for the CONVERSION and PRODUCTION OF ARMS, d o they not?
Not a word from Mr Meissner yet. I presume that now, at the
204. Engels to Marx. 21 December
year's end, he finds the pressure of business very great. T h e contract does give me surety in the event of any evasive manoeuvres. In the second, emended and definitive version, the contract contains NO STIPULATION WHATEVER AS TO THE TERM FOR WHICH THE MANUSCRIFI b is TO BE READY. But if there is no answer by tomorrow, I shall write again.
As you enjoy credit with quelconque" bookseller and I CAN not SPEND a FARTHING on books at the moment, you would be doing me a great favour if you could get as quickly as possible for me: '/. E. Th. Rogers: A History of Agriculture'. I must have a look at the book and have left a gap in one chapter for the purpose. [3 9 8]
Although it has already been out for a long time, it is not yet in the library. Nor at Mudie's, so I am assured by Eccarius, for whom The Commonwealth took out a subscription there. Salut.
Your
K. M.
204
ENGELS T O MARX [3 9 9]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 21 December 1866
Dear Moor,
I also think that the leaders in Western Europe will do their utmost to preserve the peace next year and until everyone is equipped with breech-loaders. However, whether the Russians will not consider this very time opportune for cutting Austria down to size with Bismarck's help, for annexing Galicia and dividing Turkey u p into a multitude of small Slav states, is another question. Moreover, it could happen that in France, too, war will become a necessity — for the sake of this military reorganisation, because without a war good old Boustrapa7<i will not be able to get it accepted. The last war(1) has placed the fellow in a curious dilemma: either he lets everything stand as it is, in which case he will no longer be a MATCH for Prussia, or else he carries the matter out, which will be disastrous for him, first because of his tremendous unpopularity, and second because he is completely debonapartising the army. From the moment that some kind of military service for all is introduced in France, the praetorian system[400] will cease of its own accord and the 25-30% of RE-ENLISTED FELLOWS, who now serve in the French army, will disappear for the most part. However, as there will still be substitution,[401] this time Mr Bonaparte will find himself in the comical predicament of needing the support of the bourgeoisie to oppose the peasantry. But the course of history really is quite impudently ruthless in dealing with this noble fellow, and he must be forgiven if he loses faith in the ways of God and the World. I hope he, like me, reads his Horace for recreation: justum ac tenacem propositi virum,b etc. Old Horace reminds me in places of Heine, who learnt a great deal from him and was au fondc politiced no less common a cur. Remember how the sterling fellow challenged the vultus instantis tyranni" and licked Augustus' boots. And the old goat is quite charming in other respects, too.
I will get the booke for you next week if I can. It is very pleasing about the articles in the Revue des deux Mondes and Fortnightly, although I have not yet been able to read them.s
Revue contemporaine^ does not exist here.
Wehner, who was recently in Germany, tells the following anecdote, which was told by Bennigsen (of the National Association ll2) himself: when Bennigsen had his meeting with Bismarck before the war, the latter expounded his whole National-Associationist German policy to him, whereupon Bennigsen enquired how it was that Bismarck was choosing the difficult path of war in order to carry it out, instead of simply 'relying on the support of the people', as the liberal cry has it. Bismarck stared at him for a few moments and then said: Could you jump a ditch with a rheumatic nag? He also brought back the news that the unhappy Crown Prince,h who used to put on such liberal airs, has
205. Marx to Engels. 31 December
become even more crazed than the old man" since the war, which is one good thing at least.
I enclose another two five-pound-notes, so that you shall not be quite without money over the holidays:
M/W 34768, London, 12 October 1866, I/S 49080, Manchester, 26 January 1866, in the not entirely unfounded expectation that the accounts will indemnify me for it at the end of the year.
Many regards to the LADIES.
Your
F. E.
205
MARX TO ENGELS[33]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 31 December 1866
DEAR FRED,
Happy New Year! Ditto for Madame Lizzyb! May the devil take Russians, Prussians, Bonaparte and the BRITISH JURYMAN in the coming year!
Apropos. The French government had confiscated papers and documents intended for us which were being brought across the frontier by French MEMBERS after the Geneva Congress, and attached them for the police archives. We claimed the things back through Lord Stanley, FOREIGN MINISTER, as 'BRITISH PROPERTY'. And in fact POOR Bonaparte had to surrender everything to us via the FOREIGN OFFICE. IS that not priceless! He has been outwitted but himself does not know how.
I received some very sad news today — my uncle0 has died, he was an excellent man. However, he made a good death, quick, surrounded by all his children, fully conscious and dispensing subtle Voltairean irony over the priest.
The whole family sends you New Year greetings.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
1867
206
Endnotes
[72] The London Amalgamated Union of Building Workers (George Potter, a reformist, was one of its leaders) started a campaign for a nine-hour working day in 1859. At the end of July 1859 they called a strike in response to the employers' refusal to reduce working hours. At a joint meeting on 27 July the employers declared open war on the trade unions. They refused to employ their members and on 6 August locked out over 20,000 workers. The strike ended in February 1860 with a compromise: the employers agreed to take on trade union members, while the workers were compelled to withdraw their demand for a nine-hour working day.—50
[275] The draft of the new statutes drawn up by Le Lubez was published in L'Echo de Verviers, No. 301, on 27 December 1865. This draft expressed the federalist views of some petty-bourgeois democrats, members of the French Section in London, and nullified the leading role of the Central Council by turning it into a mere representative body with purely technical informative and statistical functions.—213, 214
[21] circles.
[249] Marx stayed with Engels in Manchester from 20 October to early November 1865.—193, 196, 201, 208, 214
[277] Marx refers to Johann Philipp Becker's address, 'Rundschreiben der deutschen Abtheilung des Zentral Komites der Internationalen Arbeiterassociation für die Schweiz an die Arbeiter', issued in Geneva in November 1865. In it Becker urged the workers to join the International and wrote about the forthcoming publication of its German (Der Vorbote) and French (Journal de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs) press organs. An English translation of some passages from this address was published in The Workman's Advocate, No. 145, 16 December 1865. A report of the International's activities in Switzerland was printed in issue No. 1 of Der Vorbote in January 1866 under the heading 'Entwicklungsgang unserer Association'. The note to Becker mentioned by Marx has not been found.—214
[246] The London Conference of the International Working Men's Association was held from 25 to 29 September 1865. It was convened on Marx's insistence, for he considered that the Association's sections were not yet strong enough to succeed in holding a general congress in 1865 as stipulated by the Provisional Rules. The conference was attended by Central Council members and by delegates from the principal branches in France, Switzerland and Belgium. Wilhelm Liebknecht could not come to the conference, and Germany was represented by Karl Marx as the Corresponding Secretary of the Central Council for the country and Johann Philipp Becker who had credentials from the Solingen branch of the General Association of German Workers which was in opposition to the latter's Lassallean leadership. The conference heard the Central Council's report, its financial statement, and also delegates' reports on the situation in individual sections. The main point discussed was the agenda and the procedure for convening the forthcoming congress. It was decided to hold it in Geneva in May 1866 (later the Central Council postponed it until early September 1866). Though the Proudhonists demanded that the Polish question should be struck off the agenda of the Congress and that the right of any member of the Association to participate in it be recognised, the conference retained in the agenda the point of the restoration of Poland's independence and recognised only elected delegates as competent members of the Congress. Other proposals of the Council concerning the programme of the Congress were also approved. The London Conference of 1865 which was prepared and conducted under Marx's guidance played an important part in the formation and organisational shaping of the International.—189, 201, 214
[25] In his articles denouncing the diplomacy of the ruling classes Marx made use of the documents which the conservative writer David Urquhart, who was in opposition to the British government, published in his periodicals The Portfolio and The Free Press. While printing his separate articles in The Free Press, Marx criticised Urquhart and his followers for their anti-democratic views and always emphasised the fundamental difference between his position as a proletarian revolutionary and that of the Urquhartists.—19
[279] On 27 October 1865 in Port-au-Prince in Martinique (the French colony in the West Indies) three Zouave regiments refused to obey the French command to join the intervention in Mexico.— 215
[280] In 1865 the French government attempted to make the British government extend the Franco-British extradition treaty of 1843 (see Note 500) to persons guilty of political crimes.— 215
[283] This refers to Point 9 on the agenda of the London Conference of the International in 1865 which reads as follows: 'The Muscovite invasion of Europe, and the re-establishment of an integral and independent Poland' (see The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866. The London Conference 1865. Minutes, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1961, p. 305).—216
[284] Yhe meeting to commemorate the third anniversary of the Polish insurrection of 1863-64 (see Note 24) was held in St. Martin's Hall, London, on 22 January 1866 and was presided over by a Polish democrat, Ludwik Oborski. As reported by Glos Wolny, the organ of the democratic wing of Polish emigrants, the meeting was sponsored by the International Working Men's Association and the Polish emigrants. It unanimously adopted Fox's resolution, which was supported by Marx, expressing solidarity of the workers and democrats of Britain and other European countries with the Polish national liberation struggle. The report of the meeting was published in The Workman's Advocate, No. 151, 27 January, Glos Wolny, No. 93, 31 January, and The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 225, 3 February 1866.—218
[278] From November 1865 the Central Committee of the German sections in Switzerland, headed by Johann Philipp Becker, served as the organising centre for sections uniting the German workers not only in Switzerland but also in Germany, Austria and in other countries where German refugee workers lived.—215, 219
[287] In his letter to Marx of 20 December 1865 Ludwig Kugelmann asked him to send two membership cards of the International Association for himself and Theodor Heinrich Menke, and enclosed two talers for the purpose.—220
[288] Marx's letter addressed to August Vogt, and presumably also meant for Sigfrid Meyer and Theodor Metzner, has not been found.—222
[289] See this note by Marx in the English edition of Volume One of Capital published in London, under Engels' editorship, in 1887 (Part III, Chapter X, Section 2, p. 223). In the first German edition of Volume One of Capital (1867), the section 'The Working Day' was part of Chapter III while in the second and subsequent German editions it made up Chapter VIII of Part III. In the English edition of 1887 it is Chapter X in Part III (see present edition, Vol. 35).—224
[291] In his letter of 18 January 1866 to Marx Wilhelm Liebknecht wrote that J. B. von Hofstetten, an editor of Der Social-Demokrat, had made one more attempt to persuade Marx, Engels and himself to contribute to the newspaper and use it for propagating the ideas of the International.—225
[292] On 29 January 1866 the Prussian Supreme Tribunal adopted a decision to institute court proceedings against Karl Twesten and Frenzel, members of the Chamber of Deputies, for their Chamber speeches delivered in 1865 in which they criticised the government press. This decision was adopted despite the fact that the courts of first and second instance rejected the prosecutor's demand to apply this measure to the said deputies. The Chamber of Deputies of the Prussian Provincial Diet found the Supreme Tribunal's decision contradictory to the Prussian Constitution and to the principle of the inviolability of deputies, and turned it down. Nevertheless, Twesten's case was referred to the Berlin City Court, but in May 1866 Twesten was acquitted.—226
[294] Marx set forth the theory of ground rent in Chapter VI of the manuscript of Book III of Capital. In the third volume of Capital published by Engels it is given as Part VI: 'Transformation of Surplus-Profit into Ground Rent' (see present edition, Vol. 37).—227
[295] Marx presumably meant H. Mahon's Aus dem Bericht an den Minister für die landwirtschaftlichen Angelegenheiten in Berlin über die japanische Landwirtschaft. This work was published as a supplement to J. Liebig's Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologie, Braunschweig, 1862. Marx's notebook of excerpts for 1865, which he probably filled in while working on his Economic Manuscript of 1863-65, contains synopses of these two works. When developing the theory of ground rent Marx used, besides the above-mentioned work by Liebig, the following books: L. de Lavergne, The Rural Economy of England, Scotland and Ireland. Translated from the French, Edinburgh and London, 1855; and L'Mounier, De l'agriculture en France, d'après les documents officiels, avec des remarques par Rubichon, Tomes 1-2, Paris, 1846.—227
[296] The shifting system or Relay system was used by the British manufacturers to circumvent the laws limiting the working hours of children and juveniles. Under this system the children and juveniles, after several hours' work, were moved the same day to another workshop or factory in order to deceive the factory inspectors. As a result, their entire working day was often even longer than before the adoption of the ten hours act (see present edition, Vol. 35).—227
[297] The reference is to Section IV of Chapter IV of the first edition of Volume One of Marx's Capital. In the second and subsequent editions it is given as Chapter XIII: 'Machinery and Industry'. In the English edition of 1887 edited by Engels it is Chapter XV in Part IV (see present edition, Vol. 35).—228
[298] By decision of the Central Council of the International, The Workman's Advocate (No. 148) of 6 January 1866 reprinted from The Cork Daily Herald an appeal by the wives of the Irish revolutionaries O'Donovan Rossa and Luby to collect funds for the imprisoned Fenians (see Note 257). It was entitled 'The State Prisoners. An Appeal to the Women of Ireland'. At the Central Council meeting of 16 January 1866 Marx announced that Fox had received a letter from Mrs O'Donovan Rossa thanking him for the reprint of the appeal and for his articles published in The Workman's Advocate on 14, 21 and 28 October 1865: 'The British Coup d'État in Ireland' (No. 136), 'The Influence of Irish National Feeling upon the Relations between Great Britain and the United States' (No. 137), and 'The Irish Difficulty. Continued' (No. 138).—228
[224] A banquet of the opposition liberal majority of the Chamber of Deputies, organised by the Rhineland men of Progress (see Note 99) headed by the Town Councillor Classen-Kappelmann, was scheduled for 22-23 July 1865, in Cologne. On 17 July the Bismarck government forbade the banquet. Despite numerous protests on the part of the workers in the various towns of Germany against this arbitrary measure, most opposition members did not dare to show open resistance. Only some 80 delegates out of the 250 invited arrived in Cologne. The banquet's organiser, Classen-Kappelmann, fearing arrest, left for Belgium. Since the hall where the banquet was to take place had been closed by the police, the deputies tried to hold the banquet in the Zoological Gardens, but were driven out of it by soldiers and policemen.—169, 182, 185, 229
[300] Marx's letter bears a mark in Lessner's hand: 'von Karl Marx F. Lessner London January 1901'.—229
[301] Engels stayed at Marx's house in London from 14 to 18 February 1866.—230
[7] On 2 September 1864 Engels wrote to Marx about his intention to travel to Schleswig and Holstein annexed to Prussia (Schleswig) and Austria (Holstein) after the defeat of Denmark in the war of 1864. Engels left Manchester on 8 September and after a short stay with Marx in London (presumably on 9 September) travelled to the Continent. He returned to England in mid-October — 6, 11
[302] This letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877, Boston, Toron-to, 1981.—233, 438, 539
[28] The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 in connection with the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's birth, strove to be a German emigre cultural and social centre. Engels was critical of the Institute, noted for its tendency to formalism and pedantry, and he initially kept aloof from it. But when certain changes were introduced into its Rules, he became a member of its Directorate in 1864. Later, as the President of the Institute, Engels devoted much time to it and exercised a considerable influence on its activities. In September 1868, while Engels was away from Manchester, the Institute invited Karl Vogt, who was connected with the Bonapartists and was slandering the proletarian revolutionaries, to deliver a lecture. Engels felt that his political reputation would be compromised if he remained President and so he left the Directorate. In April 1870 he was again elected a member of the Directorate of the Schiller Institute, but did not take an active part in it.— 20, 49, 81, 98, 116, 127, 235, 498, 503, 533, 555, 560
[303] A reference to the publication of the findings of the Parliamentary commission investigating the atrocities committed by the British army in suppressing the Negro rebellion in Jamaica (see Note 252). The commission condemned these actions. Initially supporting the colonialists, The Times later on had to heed public opinion: on 3 and 5 March 1866 (Nos. 25436 and 25437) it published editorials and reports in which the brutalities committed 'by persons wearing the English uniform' were denounced. The news of Russell's resignation turned to be premature. The Russell government resigned in June 1866, following the failure of Gladstone's Reform Bill (see Note 315).—236
[212] At the elections to the Geneva Cantonal Council in August 1864 the radical James Fazy, who headed the canton's government in 1846-53 and 1855-61, suffered a crushing defeat because of the exposure of his financial machina-tions as President of the Banque Générale Suisse. After the elections Fazy's followers made an armed attack on some of those who voted against him. When Swiss government troops arrived in Geneva, Fazy had to flee to France.—158, 185, 237
[309] The Italian patriot Felice Orsini was executed in March 1858 for organising an attempt on Napoleon Ill's life. After Orsini's arrest, the leadership of the Carbonari a secret revolutionary society, which Louis Bonaparte joined in 1831 when in Italy, sent him letters reminding him of his oath, which he had broken, to struggle for Italy's liberation. After Orsini's execution, it passed an official death sentence on Napoleon III.—242
[310] A. Rogeard, Les propos de Labienus—a pamphlet published in 1865; it criticised Napoleon Ill's empire under the guise of Julius Caesar's dictatorship in Rome.—243
[311] At the Central Council meeting of 13 March 1866, Cesare Orsini refuted Luigi Wolff's statement made at the Council meeting of 6 March that there were no Socialists in Italy in the French sense of the word; he also noted Mazzini's reactionary attitude towards science.—243
[312] A member of the Dutch Section of the International, Antoinette Philips in her letters gave an extensive account of the events in Holland, which is why Marx jokingly calls her his Dutch secretary.—243
[314] A pun on the similarity of the names Grach and Gracchi — the name of the ancient Roman reformers. Marx's wife Jenny deposited 1,300 talers with Grach, a banker in Trier, who went bankrupt and concealed the fact from the depositors. At the request of Grach's wife, who promised to return the money after she had received an inheritance, Jenny Marx refrained from pursuing the matter in the courts (see Marx's letter to Engels of 8 March 1855, present edition, Vol. 39, p. 526). In Marx's subsequent letters, however, there is no indication whether the banker's wife paid the debt or not. Marx may be referring here to reassuring news about this matter.—244
[20] and his speeches in support of the Polish insurgents angered the British ruling
[319] A reference to the pamphlet Congrès ouvrier. Association Internationale des Travailleurs published by the Paris Section of the International early in 1866. It contained a French translation of the International's Provisional Rules, with some passages distorted by the Proudhonists; an appeal of the Paris Section to the members of the International Association which had first been published in the summer of 1865 and which included the Section's programme for the congress initially intended to be held in Brussels; the French delegation's report about the London Conference of 1865; the programme for the Geneva Congress of 1866, which had been approved by the London Conference, and other material.—259
[320] The Thirty Years' War, 1618-48—a European war, in which the Pope, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs and the German Catholic princes rallied under the banner of Catholicism and fought against Protestant countries: Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, the Republic of the Netherlands, and a number of German states. The rulers of Catholic France, rivals of the Habsburgs, supported the Protestant camp.—263
[322] The Kingdom of Poland—the Polish territory annexed to the Russian Empire in accordance with the decision of the Vienna Congress of 1815.—267
[323] The Vienna Treaty, which concluded the war of 1864 waged by Prussia and Austria against Denmark (see Note 9), confirmed a number of previous treaties and conventions on Denmark, Schleswig and Holstein, in particular the clauses of the London Protocol of May 1852 on the Danish succession. In the Protocol, the Emperor of Russia was named as one of the lawful claimants to the Danish throne (being a descendant of Charles Peter Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who reigned in Russia as Peter III). The claimants waived their rights in favour of Duke Christian of Glücksburg, who was named heir to King Frederick VII. This created a precedent for the claims of the Russian Emperor to the Danish throne in the event of the extinction of the Glücksburg dynasty.— 267
[324] An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in K. Marx and F. Engels, The Civil War in France, London, 1937.—268
[325] In March 1866, London tailors demanded a wage increase. A number of owners of large tailors' shops responded with a lock-out. On 27 March, all London tailors went on strike. The Executive Committee of the Journeymen Tailors' Protective Association, which had been formed at the national conference of British tailors held in Manchester on 12-17 March 1866, appealed to all tailors in Britain to support the strike. At its meeting of 27 March 1866, the Central Council of the International decided to instruct the Continental corresponding secretaries to call upon the tailors on the Continent not to go to Britain, where the employers were going to use them as strike-breakers. The Central Council's support of the strike played an important part in the victory of the London tailors in April 1866 and added to the popularity and prestige of the International Working Men's Association among the British working class. On 17 April, the Tailors' Protective Association joined the International.—268
[329] On the London tailors' strike see Note 325. On 23 April 1866, the London wire-workers went on strike, demanding a 10 per cent wage increase. The same day, the strike committee sent out letters to all towns in England, Scotland and Ireland requesting the wire-workers there not to take jobs in London during the strike. With the help of the Central Council of the International, similar letters were sent to France and Germany. At the Central Council meeting of 24 April 1866, B. Patis, a member of the London Association of Wire-Workers, thanked the Council for its help to the strikers and promised that the wire-workers would join the International.—272
[38] Marx presumably means the leading article, 'Bescheidenheit — ein Ehrenkleid' (Modesty — a Festive Garment), published in the Stuttgart Beobachter (No. 245) on 21 October 1864. It ridiculed Karl Blind's address to the American people (on the occasion of presidential elections), which was distinguished for his excessive claims to political importance and boasting. The article was probably written by the paper's editor, Karl Mayer.—27
[331] A reference to Austria's defeat by France and Piedmont in the Austro-Franco-Italian war of 1859.—274
[332] In preparing a war against Austria, Bismarck's government sought for France's benevolent neutrality. On 6 May 1866, the Emperor Napoleon III made a speech at an agricultural festival in Auxerre, in which he said that, like the majority of the French nation, he felt an aversion for the treaties of 1815, which certain parties would like to make the only foundation of France's foreign policy (see The Times, No. 25492, 8 May 1866). This statement, which was a response to a critical speech made by Louis Adolphe Thiers in the Corps législatif, implied the demand that the clauses of the Vienna treaties concerning France's eastern borders be revised. In Prussia, it was regarded as an encouragement for Bismarck's intention to reorganise the German Confederation which had been formed on the basis of the decisions of the Vienna Congress of 1815.—274
[333] On Bismarck's intended reform of the German Confederation, see Note 316. The Fundamental Rights of the German People (Die Grundrechte des deutschen Volkes), approved by the Frankfurt National Assembly late in 1848, formulated, like the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, the basic bourgeois freedoms; they were incorporated into the Imperial Constitution of 1849, which was worked out by the National Assembly, but rejected by the King of Prussia and other German sovereigns (see Note 130). The main points of the Fundamental Rights were included in the constitutions of some German states, but were later on either deleted from them, or revised and curtailed on the basis of the decision of the Federal Diet of 23 August 1851.— 276
[335] At the Central Council meeting of 8 May 1866, Peter Fox announced that, at the next meeting, he would speak against a passage in Engels' third article ('The Doctrine of Nationality Applied to Poland') from the series 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?' (present edition, Vol. 20). Judging by this letter of Marx's, Fox made a speech at the Central Council meeting of 15 May 1866; however, there are no records, in the minutes of this meeting, either of Fox's speech or of Marx's reply.— 278
[336] Marx uses the term Haupt- und Staatsaktionen ('principal and spectacular actions'), which has several meanings. In the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century, it denoted plays performed by German touring companies. The plays, which were rather formless, presented tragic historical events in a bombastic and at the same time coarse and farcial way. Secondly, this term can denote major political events. It was used in this sense by a trend in German historical science known as 'objective historiography'. Leopold Ranke was one of its chief representatives. He regarded Haupt- und Staatsaktionen as the main subject-matter of history.— 280
[334] Engels' series of articles, 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?', was never finished. This may have been because of the increasing influence of the radical bourgeois on the editorial board of The Commonwealth, where it was being published.—278, 280
[337] The Commonwealth, No. 165 of 5 May 1866, carried an editorial statement to the effect that the editors bore no responsibility for the contributions printed below a certain line. The responsibility was to be borne by the authors themselves. The statement was directed primarily against Engels' series of articles 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?', which were printed below the line marked by the editors.—280
[103] p a r t 0f thj s ] e t t e r w a s published in English for the first time in Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.— 70, 281
[338] The crash of Barnett's bank in Liverpool was one of the first signs of the crisis of 1866 which led to the collapse of the leading houses of Overend, Gurney, and following this of other banks, including the Consolidated Bank.— 281
[339] No. 15 of Le Courrier français for 20 May 1866 carried an appeal of the Paris students to the students of Germany and Italy (Aux étudiants des universités d'Allemagne et d'Italie, les étudiants de Paris) in connection with the threat of war between Prussia and Austria. This appeal was strongly influenced by Proudhonists who ignored the historic tasks of the national unification of Gennany and Italy. The meeting of the Central Council, which was held on 5 June 1866 in Marx's absence, discussed the appeal of the French Section in London in response to the appeal of the Paris students: 'To the Paris Students, to the Students and Young People of All Countries from the Workers of All Countries' (The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866. The London Conference 1865. Minutes, Moscow, 1961, pp. 337-39). Marx was dissatisfied with the content of the latter appeal. At the Central Council meeting of 19 June 1866, Marx gave an extensive criticism of the Proudhonist position on the nationalities question (see this volume, pp. 286-87).—281
[340] A reference to the unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II's life made by the Russian revolutionary Dmitri Karakosoff on 4 April 1866.—282
[342] At a session of the Commons on 4 June 1866, Disraeli criticised Clarendon's activity as Foreign Secretary, in particular, his alleged lack of firmness during the Crimean war and at the Paris peace congress of 1856.—282
[343] Engels is referring to Prussia's defeat in the war with Napoleonic France in 1806.—285
[344] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934]. The complete English translation was published in Karl Marx, On the First International Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1973.—286
[346] A discussion on the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 took place at the Central Council meetings of 19 and 26 June, and 17 July 1866. It was Marx's aim in the discussion to explain the necessity for the International to take an independent stand as a working-class organisation. This stand should have nothing to do either with the Proudhonists' nihilistic attitude towards the struggle for the national unification of Germany and Italy or with the British trade unionist tendency to embellish the unification policy of the ruling classes in Prussia and Italy, to neglect their expansionist and dynastic motives which played an important part in initiating the war conflict. Marx's critical speech persuaded the Central Council to refuse, on 17 July, to vote for the resolutions submitted earlier by Cremer and Dutton, as well as for Fox's resolution, because they failed to give precise formulations of the tasks of the proletariat. The Council unanimously adopted, with certain amendments, the following resolution which had been proposed by Bobczynski and Carter: 'That the Central Council of the International Working Men's Association consider the present conflict on the Continent to be one between Governments and advise working men to be neutral, and to associate themselves with a view to acquire strength by unity and to use the strength so acquired in working out their social and political emancipation' (The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866. The London Conference 1865. Minutes, Moscow, 1964, p. 213).—287
[350] As a result of the resignation of the Russell Liberal government and in protest against the impending coming to power of the Conservatives headed by Derby and Disraeli, mass meetings took place in London's Trafalgar Square, on 27 June and 2 July 1866, which again demanded manhood suffrage. In March 1866 the Reform League abandoned this demand under the influence of bourgeois radicals (see Note 315), but in the situation its leadership had to return for some time to its former platform. These meetings, which began a new stage in the struggle for a second electoral reform in Britain, had virtually been organised by members of the Central Council of the International.—290
[76] Boustrapa—nickname for Louis Bonaparte, composed of the first syllables of the names of the places where he and his supporters staged Bonapartist putches: Boulogne (August 1840), Strasbourg (October 1846) and Paris (coup d'état of 2 December 1851).—55, 182, 290, 339
[351] In referring to Thiers' criticism of the foreign policy of the Second Empire, Marx, apparendy, had in mind his speech of 3 May 1866 in the Corps législatif to which Napoleon III responded with a speech in Auxerre on 6 May 1866 (see Note 332). On 6 July 1866 the government of Napoleon III submitted a project of a senatus-consulte to the French Senate in accordance with which it was the Senate's exclusive right to discuss any alterations in the Constitution; discussion of any such matters in the press was to be prohibited under the threat of heavy fines; and the clause in the Constitution of 1852 establishing a three-month term for the forthcoming session of the Corps législatif was to be abolished. The senatus-consulte was adopted by the Senate on 14 July 1866. During the debates on the budget for 1867 in the Corps législatif on 14 June 1866, one of the leaders of the bourgeois-republican opposition, Jules Favre, criticised the Mexican expedition (see Note 270) which involved tremendous expenses. At the same session another member of the republican opposition, Deputy Glais-Bizoin, expressed support for the parliamentary system referring to the French as a nation living under a regime of despotism. For this he was called to order by Walewski, Chairman of the Corps législatif.—290
[352] On 4 July 1866, after the defeat of the Austrian army at Sadowa (see Note 348), the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph sent a telegram to Napoleon III in which he informed Napoleon that he was ready to secede to him Venetia provided that Napoleon would then secede this region to Italy, and he asked Napoleon III to act as intermediary between the belligerent states. Italy and Prussia agreed to Napoleon's mediation. In accordance with the peace treaty with Austria signed in Vienna on 3 October 1866 the region was returned to Italy.—291
[353] Marx is referring to the bulbs that his daughter Jenny received from Johann Carl Juta, husband of her aunt Louise, in Cape Town and sent to Engels with detailed instructions on how to grow them.—291, 294
[357] A reference to the projected settlement of the Austro-Prussian conflict that was proposed by the government of Napoleon III on 11 July 1866 in response to Prussia's peace terms. According to the project, an independent South German Confederation was to be formed, consisting of states lying south of the Main, similar to the former Confederation of the Rhine. In this way Napoleon III hoped to prevent the unification of Germany and to subordinate South German states to his protectorate. The Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund)—a confederation of states in Southern and Western Germany that was formed in July 1806 under the protectorate of Napoleon I. Napoleon's creation of this military and political stronghold in Germany was made possible by his defeat of Austria in 1805. Initially the Confederation incorporated sixteenth states (Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and others), and later on another five states (Saxony, Westphalia, and others), which virtually became vassals of France. The Confederation fell apart in 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon's army.—294, 297
[358] A reference to the war that France fought against the Holy Roman Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.—295
[46] Marx's telegram has not been found.—31, 288, 297
[293] Engels refers to the negotiations between the Austrian ruling circles and the Hungarian moderate bourgeois-landlord opposition headed by Ferencz Deäk on the reorganisation of the Habsburg Empire's state structure. In the spring of 1867 an Austro-Hungarian agreement was concluded under which the Austrian Empire turned into the dual state of Austria-Hungary. This compromise between the ruling classes of the two countries aimed at suppressing the national liberation movement of the other peoples in the Empire, above all the Slavs. The concessions made to the Hungarians were also due to Austria's defeat in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866.—226, 297
[31] Engels is referring to the nearly nine-month-long siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean war of 1853-56.—21
[34] In their letters of 11 November 1864, Schweitzer and Liebknecht invited Marx to contribute to Der Social-Demokrat, the prospective newspaper of the General Association of German Workers (see Note 2). In the same month, Schweitzer sent Marx and Engels the prospectus, which did not contain Lassalle's slogans. Since they had no other press organ to influence the workers' movement in Germany, they agreed to collaborate with Der Social-Demokrat. They also took into account the fact that Wilhelm Liebknecht was an unofficial member of its editorial board. Marx's 'Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association' and 'On Proudhon', and Engels' translation of the old Danish folk song 'Herr Tidmann' were printed in the newspaper. However, fully convinced that Schweitzer, the editor of the newspaper, was continuing the Lassallean policy of flirting with the government and the Junkers and trying to spread the cult of Lassalle, Marx and Engels on 23 February 1865 announced their break with the newspaper (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 80). Wilhelm Liebknecht followed suit and refused to collaborate with the paper.— 22, 102, 136
[361] In his letters of 30 June to Marx and of 16 July 1866 to Engels Paul Stumpf from Mainz said that Wilhelm Liebknecht held a pro-Austrian stance in the Austro-Prussian war. In these letters, as well as in his letter to Marx of 10 July, Stumpf asked for instructions on the stand to be taken by the International's members in Mainz with regard to the military events.—298, 299
[93] The name Plon-Plonists is derived from Plon-Plon, the nickname of Prince Napoleon Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Ill's cousin, whose residence was the Palais Royal while Napoleon III resided in the Tuiliers. Joseph Bonaparte headed a group of Bonapartists who sought to divert the people's attention from the struggle against the regime of the Second Empire by means of social demagogy and sham opposition to the government's policy.—66, 76, 208, 300, 567
[306] The Central (General) Council's meetings took place in the premises at 18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, from January 1866 to 25 June 1867.—238
[252] The mass Negro uprising in Jamaica, the British colony in the West Indies, took place in October 1865. It was caused by the severe exploitation of the Negroes by the colonists, though slavery had been abolished on the island in 1833. The uprising was brutally suppressed by the Governor of Jamaica, General Eyre. The atrocities perpetrated by Eyre caused public outrage in Britain, and the British government was compelled to dismiss him from his post.—197, 199, 205, 300
[368] p a r t 0f this letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx, On History and People, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1977. The full version of the letter was published in The Letters of Karl Marx, New Jersey, 1979.—303
[369] A reference to a note handed to Bismarck in early August 1866 by the French Ambassador to Berlin Vincent Benedetti; it demanded the restoration of the 1814 frontiers as a compensation for France's neutrality during the Austro-Prussian war. This meant that the Saar Basin, the Palatinate, and the Rhenish part of Hesse-Darmstadt with the fortresses of Landau and Mainz were to be given over to France. The note also suggested that the Prussian garrison should be withdrawn from Luxemburg. The claims of Napoleon III were based on the secret promises made by Bismarck before the Austro-Prussian war not to impede the annexation of the German territories between the Rhine and Mosel by France in case the latter did not prevent the formation of the Prusso-Italian coalition and defeat of Austria. However, following the victory over Austria, Bismarck, who planned a war with France, changed his stand and rejected the French government's demands on 7 August.—306, 352
[370] This fact was later on cited by Engels in his unfinished work The Role of Violence in History which he wrote in 1887 and 1888 (see present edition, Vol. 26).—307
[371] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx, On Education, Women and Children, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1975 — 307
[372] Marx was sending Engels a letter to him from Liebknecht of 10 August 1866 along with a few issues of the Leipzig Mitteldeutsche Volkszeitung. The newspaper was founded in 1862 by liberals but in August 1866, after it had lost most of its subscribers it was sold to Liebknecht. He tried to turn it into a democratic paper and use it, as he wrote to Marx, to publicise the ideas and documents of the IWMA in Germany. However, on 29 August the publication was stopped by the Prussian military authorities of the city and was never renewed again.—310
[15] Lassalle spoke before the Düsseldorf assizes on 27 June 1864. His speech was first published in the Düsseldorfer Zeitung Nos. 176-78 for 1864, and appeared separately under the title Prozeß gegen den Schriftsteller Herrn Ferdinand Lassalle, verhandelt zu Düsseldorf vor der korrektioneilen Appelkammer am 27. Juni 1864, Düsseldorf, 1864.—12, 38
[374] Marx is referring to his regular contributions to the New-York Daily Tribune which he made for over ten years, from August 1851 to March 1862.— 311
[375] The Geneva Congress—the first congress of the International Working Men's Association — took place between 3 and 8 September 1866. It was attended by 60 delegates from the Central (General) Council, various sections of the International and workers' societies in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland. Hermann Jung was elected chairman. In preparing for the Congress Marx wrote 'Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional General Council. The Different Questions' (see present edition, Vol. 20). This document was read as the official report of the Council. The Proudhonists who enjoyed one-third of the votes at the Congress countered Marx's 'Instructions' with their own programme on all items of the agenda setting it out in a memorandum. Nevertheless, the Congress adopted a resolution based on six of the nine points formulated by Marx in the 'Instructions': on the international combination of efforts in the struggle between labour and capital, on limitation of the working day, on juvenile and children's labour, on co-operative labour, on trade unions, and on standing armies. A compromise resolution on Poland was moved by Johann Philipp Becker and was adopted. The Geneva Congress approved the Rules and the Regulations of the International Association and elected its General Council (officially called Central Council before the Congress) mostly in its former composition. The Congress completed the formation of the International as a mass international proletarian organisation.—312, 314, 316, 326, 368
[376] As a result of its victory over Austria in 1866, Prussia was able to embark on the unification of Germany under its aegis. Besides its direct annexation of certain territories (see Note 355), it compelled Austria to agree to the disbandment of the German Confederation, and also succeeded in signing alliance treaties with 17 North German states (north of the Main) which had fought in the war on its side; later on Saxony and other German states joined alliance treaties. This form of union prepared the ground for the formation of the North German Confederation.—312, 349, 460
[377] Judging by this letter, Engels left for Germany on 24 August 1866. Presumably he visited his home town and other places in the Rhine Province of Prussia, and stayed with his relatives. Engels returned to Manchester probably in the latter half of September.—313, 330
[378] F r o m the end of August till mid-September 1866, Jenny Marx was on holiday at the seaside.—314
[5] The inaugural meeting of the International Working Men's Association held in London on 28 September 1864 planned to call an international workers' congress in Belgium in a year's time to solve questions relating to the Rules and leadership of the entire organisation. At its meeting on 1 November 1864, the Central Council of the Association, elected on 28 September (known as the General Council from 1866), approved the Provisional Rules which made it incumbent upon the Council to convene the congress in Belgium. However, taking into account the ideological and organisational weakness of the national sections of the International, Marx proposed to convene a preliminary conference in London in September 1865 to discuss the programme of the future congress. The conference took place in London between 25 and 29 September 1865 (see Note 246).— 4
[315] From the beginning of 1866, the Electoral Reform Movement in Britain came under the influence of moderate bourgeois elements; the reformist trade union leaders (Odger, Cremer and others) showed themselves increasingly willing to make concessions to them. Thus, at the National Conference held by the Reform League on 28 February-1 March 1866 in St Martin's Hall, London, they opposed the Central Council delegation (Fox, Carter, Jung, Lessner and others), which supported manhood suffrage, and announced that they would be quite satisfied with household suffrage as an immediate aim. On 12 March 1866 the Russell-Gladstone liberal government submitted to the House of Commons a Reform Bill providing for lower property qualifications for the electors (£10 in the counties and £7 in the towns). This would have meant a certain numerical increase of electors and included the wealthier strata of the working class as well. Under the influence of the bourgeois radicals and conciliatory-minded trade union leaders, the Reform League's Council supported, at its meetings of 16 and 20 March 1866, this extremely moderate bill of Gladstone which, however, was strongly opposed by the Tories and some Liberals and rejected by the Commons.—253, 257, 314
[379] At the meeting of the General Council (as the Central Council began to be called after the Geneva Congress) on 25 September 1866 Marx informed it that he had received £5, the annual contribution, from Samuel Moore in Manchester. The receipt issued to Moore by the Treasurer of the Council, William Dell, Marx sent to Engels enclosed with this letter.— 317
[380] As far back as in March 1865, the Central Council of the International adopted a resolution on the conflict in the Paris Section in which it opposed the Proudhonist thesis that only a worker was admissible as an official in the working men's organisation. During the discussion of the General Rules and the Regulations at the Geneva Congress (see Note 375), the French delegate Tolain declared that only a person directly engaged in manual labour could be a delegate to the congress. Tolain's statement met with stiff opposition. Cremer and Carter emphasised in their speeches the fact that many of the people to whom the International owed its very existence were not manual workers. They particularly noted the services of Marx who, as Cremer said, had made fight for the triumph of the working class the cause of his entire life. Tolain's amendment was rejected.— 318
[81] The reference is presumably to Wilhelm Liebknecht's letter to Marx of 20 December 1864. It clearly shows that Marx asked Liebknecht to do his utmost to get the General Association of German Workers to join the International Working Men's Association. In this way Marx hoped to encourage this workers' organisation to abandon its Lassallean reformist programme and tactics and take the path of genuinely proletarian, revolutionary struggle.—58
[382] T 0 confirm his theory, Pierre Trémaux referred to the assertion of the Senegal missionary Santamaria that the black people descended from white people.— 320
[243] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time 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.—183, 321, 452
[9] Engels is referring to the fact that the Bismarck government used the national contradictions between the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and Denmark to promote Germany's unification under the aegis of Prussia. On 13 November 1863 the Danish Parliament adopted a new constitution which proclaimed the annexation of Schleswig to Denmark in violation of the London Protocol of 1852 (the latter stipulated that Denmark and the duchies could be linked only by personal union). This served as a pretext for Bismarck to declare war on Denmark. Austria joined Prussia for she did not want Prussia, her main rival in Germany, to enjoy the fruits of victory alone. As a result of the Danish war (1 February-16 July 1864), a treaty was concluded in Vienna on 30 October 1864 which declared Schleswig and Holstein to be co-possessions of Austria and Prussia. After the 1866 Austro-Prussian war the two duchies were annexed to Prussia.— 7, 34, 121, 350
[383] Xhe workers' congress in Baltimore was held from 20 to 25 August 1866. It was attended by 60 delegates representing 60,000 American workers organised in trade unions. The Congress discussed such matters as the legal introduction of an eight-hour working day, political activities, co-operative societies, the unification of all workers in trade unions, strikes, and housing conditions. It was decided at the Congress to form the National Labour Union.—326
[384] In his letter to Marx of 11 October 1866 Kugelmann said that he had not received any letters from him since April of that year and that he believed that the subsequent letters might have been either lost or intercepted. Later on it turned out that Marx's letter to Kugelmann of 23 August 1866 (see this volume, pp. 311-12) was only received on 27 November 1866.— 327
[105] Marx realised this intention in a footnote to the Preface to the first German edition (1867) of Volume One of Capital (see present edition, Vol. 35).—71, 329
[387] The Code pénal was introduced in 1811 in Napoleon's France and in the regions of Western and South-Western Germany conquered by the French. Article 2 of the Code says: 'Any attempt to commit an offence that manifested itself in practical acts and was accompanied by the commencement of the commitment of the offence and that was interrupted or was not carried out owing solely to circumstances that were beyond the control of the person in question shall be equivalent to an offence proper.'—333
[388] Early in September 1866 the Prussian Chamber of Deputies passed an Indemnity Bill submitted by Bismarck. The Bill relieved the government of any responsibility for expenditures which had not been legally approved during the constitutional conflict (see Note 100). Thus the conflict ended with the complete capitulation of the bourgeois opposition to the Bismarck government. Deputies Karl Twesten and Frenzel, who belonged to the opposition and had more than once criticised the government, now voted for the Bill. Nevertheless, early in November 1866 they were once again put on trial on the basis of the Supreme Tribunal's decision of 29 January 1866 (see Note 292) for their former speeches in the Prussian Provincial Diet but were again acquitted.— 333
[362] On 16 July 1866, during the Austro-Prussian war, the free city of Frankfurt am Main, which sided with Austria, was captured by the Prussian army. An indemnity of six million guldens was imposed on it, the city senate was disbanded and the garrison and military organisations disarmed. On 19 July the Prussians raised the indemnity to twenty-five million guldens and demanded from the burgomaster Karl Fellner a list of the wealthiest and most influential citizens, whose property was to be a pledge for the payment of the indemnity. He hanged himself in protest on the night of 23 July.—299, 301, 333
[389] p a r t 0f t n; s letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx, On America and the Civil War, New York, 1972, and in full in The Letters of Karl Marx, New Jersey, 1979.—334
[390] Karl Marx's father, Heinrich Marx, owned a small vineyard in the Mosel region.—334
[391] A reference to the commercial treaty between Britain and France of 23 January 1860. In accordance with the treaty the duties on British goods exported to France were not to exceed 30 per cent of their price; France had the right to duty-free import of most of her goods to Britain.— 334
[392] A reference to the defeat of the Democratic Party to which President Johnson belonged in the elections to Congress in November and December 1866. Johnson pursued a policy of compromise with the plantation-owners of the Southern states and opposed the granting of electoral rights to the Negroes. The elections were won by the Republicans who had received two-thirds of the votes in Congress.— 334
[393] Nos. 52 and 53 of the Berlin satirical weekly Kladderadatsch of 18 November 1866 carried a lampoon, Die Frau in Weiß. Drama in 5 Acten mit freier Benutzung von Wilkie Collins, which was directed against Marx and his comrades. Its author was Heinrich Bettziech, a German petty-bourgeois democrat, who wrote under the pen-name of Beta. The Brimstone Gang was the name of a students' association at Jena University in the 1770s which was notorious for its members' brawls; subsequently, the expression 'Brimstone Gang' became widespread. In his pamphlet Mein Prozeß gegen die 'Allgemeine Zeitung' which was published in 1859 the petty-bourgeois democrat Karl Vogt called Marx and his party comrades 'the Brimstone Gang'. However, this was a jocular name for a group of German émigrés that existed in Geneva in 1849 and 1850 with which Marx and his supporters were not connected. Marx exposed Vogt's slander in his pamphlet Herr Vogt which was published in 1860 (see present edition, Vol. 17). Wilhelm Liebknecht was arrested in Berlin on 2 October 1866 after he had made an anti-government speech in the Berlin Printers' Union. He was sentenced to three months imprisonment.—336
[394] A reference to the letter to Engels of 6 December 1866 from the refugee Hossfeld who lived in Liverpool. He asked Engels to lend him some money.— 337
[395] A reference to the seizure by the French authorities of letters written by members of the International, their confiscation of documents of the Geneva Congress and the pressure that the Bonapartist circles brought to bear on the British government in order to prevent the publication of Congress documents in Le Courrier international Early in January 1867 the General Council published a statement entitled 'The French Government and the International Association of Working Men' in which it exposed the actions of the ruling circles of the Second Empire towards the International (see The General Council of the First International. 1866-1868. Minutes, Moscow, 1974, pp. 271-76).—338
[396] Head Centre was the code name of the leader of the Fenian secret organisation (see Note 257). At the General Council meeting of 4 December 1866 it was reported that James Stephens, the leader of the Irish Fenians who had been arrested late in 1865 but escaped from prison and emigrated to the United States, had joined the International.—338
[397] On 6 December 1866 Pius IX addressed the officers of the French regular forces before their evacuation from the Papal States on Napoleon Ill's order. In his speech the Pope virtually expressed his disapproval of this act by the French Emperor and asked for him to be informed that he should act 'as the head of a Christian state and a good Christian', in other words, he should take effective measures to prevent the incorporation of the Papal States into the Italian Kingdom.—338
[398] \Jarx used A History of Agriculture and Prices in England by James Thorold Rogers in Chapter VI of Volume One of Capital which later became a section (chapters XXIII and XXIV in the second and subsequent German editions respectively, chapters XXV and XXVII in the English edition of 1887; see present edition, Vol. 35).—339
[399] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx and F. Engels, Literature and Art. Selection from Their Writings, New York, 1947.—339, 347
[400] Praetorians—the privileged section of the army in ancient Rome, originally the generals' guards; in a figurative sense, mercenary troops propping up a system of government based on brute force.—340
[401] The substitution system was for a long time practised in the French army whereby members of the wealthier classes had the privilege of being able to free themselves from military service by hiring substitutes. During the French Revolution this was prohibited; however, Napoleon I introduced it again. Under the law of 1855, substitutes were to be selected by government bodies and the payment for them was to be made to a special 'army donation' fund. The substitution system was abolished in France in 1872.— 340
[270] In December 1861 France started an armed intervention in Mexico, joindy with Britain and Spain, to overthrow the progressive government of Benito Juarez and turn the Mexican republic into a colony of European powers. The invaders also intended to use Mexican territory as a spring-board for intervening in the US Civil War on the side of the slaveholding Southern States. In the summer of 1863 the French occupied the city of Mexico (Britain and Spain recalled their troops in April 1862 because of contradictions with France) and declared Mexico an empire with Napoleon Ill's henchman, the Archduke of Austria Maximilian, at its head. However, the Mexican people put up a stubborn resistance to the French colonialists and inflicted a heavy defeat on them. In March 1867 they were compelled to withdraw.—208, 211, 215, 338, 438
[269] In December 1865 and January 1866 France was the scene of student disorders. They were caused by the decision of the Paris Academy Council to expel students who took part in the International Students' Congress held in Liège (Belgium) at the end of October 1865. The congress was attended by students from many European countries, the most numerous delegation being from France (Paul Lafargue, Charles Longuet, Charles Victor Jaclard, and others). Most speakers at the congress expressed the revolutionary students' protest against the regime of the Second Empire.—208, 211, 215, 304, 308
[237] On 18 July 1865 an agreement was concluded between the Bismarck government and the Board of the Cologne-Minden Railway Joint-Stock Company. It granted the Company's Board the right to buy up its shares which until then belonged to the government alone. This deal placed a considerable sum of money at the disposal of the Bismarck government. The agreement was to be ratified by the Prussian Provincial Diet, but on 28 August the shareholders' general meeting unanimously approved it without the Diet's ratification.—179, 182, 211, 285
[3] The proposal to accept the presidency of the General Association of German Workers was made to Marx by Wilhelm Liebknecht in his letters, written at the 21* beginning of September and early October 1864. Liebknecht also wrote that Bernhard Becker and Johann Baptist Schweitzer, its leaders, backed him in this request.— 3
[33] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx, On the First International. Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1973.—22, 53, 107, 128, 139, 157, 206, 212, 213, 216, 223, 237, 249, 252, 258, 277, 282, 317, 341, 350,416,419,427, 432, 437
[273] The French Section (branch) in London was founded in the autumn of 1865. Besides proletarian members like Eugène Dupont, Hermann Jung, Paul Lafargue and others, it included petty-bourgeois refugees like Victor Le Lubez and, later, Félix Pyat. On 7 July 1868 the General Council of the International adopted a resolution, on Marx's proposal, condemning the provocative behaviour of Félix Pyat (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 7). After this a split occurred in the section: the proletarian elements left it and it actually lost ties with the International.—213, 214, 216
[274] On 16 and 18 December 1865 the Belgian democratic newspaper L'Echo de Verviers, Nos. 293 and 294, published an anonymous article which slandered the Central Council's activities and the work of the London Conference of the International held in 1865 (see Note 246). Its author was the French petty-bourgeois republican Pierre Vésinier, a refugee in Belgium and the spokesman for petty-bourgeois elements in the French Section in London who opposed Marx and the Central Council. Vésinier's article was discussed in the Central Council on 26 December 1865 and on 2 and 9 January 1866. On the instructions of the Council, Vésinier's slanderous attacks were refuted by Hermann Jung, who with Marx's help wrote a letter to L'Echo de Verviers. By the Council's decision of 6 February 1866 the letter was sent to the editor (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 392-400).—213, 214, 216, 250
[267] The mass meeting was held by the Reform League (see Note 155) in London, in St Martin's Hall, on 12 December 1865. The committee for preparing the meeting consisted of the following members of the Central Council of the International: George Odger, John B. Leno, John Longmaid, William Dell, William Stainsby, George Howell and Robert Hartwell. The majority of those present at the meeting were workers and trade union members. The meeting adopted a resolution demanding manhood suffrage.—207, 215, 221, 253
[281] On 2 January 1866, Austrian journalist Arnold Hilberg from Vienna wrote to Marx inviting him to contribute to the planned journal Internationale Revue. Marx's reply to him has not been found, but from Hilberg's next letter to Marx, of 18 January, it is clear that Marx agreed (see also Marx's letter to Engels of 14 February in this volume, p. 229). However, his work in the International and on Capital presumably prevented Marx from materialising his intention.—216, 229
[282] Marx's letter to Sigfrid Meyer of 15 January 1866 has not been found. It was written in reply to one from Theodor Metzner, Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt (see Note 251).—216, 220, 222
[1] This letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx, On the First International. Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1973.—3, 64, 92, 148, 191, 218, 314
[11] The Civil War in America broke out in April 1861. The Southern slaveholders rose against the Union and formed the Confederacy of the Southern States. The war was caused mainly by the conflict between the two social systems: the capitalist system of wage labour established in the North and the slave system dominant in the South. The Civil War, which had the nature of a bourgeois-democratic revolution, underwent two stages in its development: the period of a constitutional war for maintaining the Union and the period of a revolutionary war for the abolition of slavery. The decisive role in the defeat of the Southern slaveholders and the victory of the North in April 1865 was played by the workers, farmers and the Negroes. The causes and the nature of war in America were analysed by Marx in the articles published in the Vienna newspaper Die Presse (see present edition, Vol. 19). The discontinuance of cotton imports from America as a result of the blockade of the Southern States by the Northern fleet caused a crisis in the cotton industry of several European countries. In England, for two or three years beginning in 1862, over 75 per cent of the spinners and weavers in Lancashire, Cheshire and other counties were fully or partly unemployed. Despite privation and distress, the European proletariat gave all possible support to the American fighters against slavery.—10, 38, 61, 199, 269, 523
[286] The London Conference of the International Association (see Note 246) decided to hold the first congress of the International in Geneva in May 1866. Later, however, the Central Council found it necessary to postpone the congress. All sections of the International agreed with this decision, except for the Paris Section whose Proudhonist leaders wanted to hold the congress as soon as possible because they calculated to impose their programme and principles on it. The congress met on 3-8 September 1866.—220, 258, 271, 574
[66] This refers to Marx's plans for the publication of his main work, Capital. At that time, Wilhelm Strohn, at Marx's request, conducted talks with the Hamburg publishing house of Meissner and Behre. At the end of January 1865, a preliminary agreement was reached on publishing the book in two volumes. The text of the agreement (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 361) was sent to Marx by Meissner in his letter of 21 March 1865.—46, 78
[290] 'Yhe Workman's Advocate (see Note 230) was renamed The Commonwealth on 10 February 1866. Despite the reorganisation the newspaper remained the official organ of the International Working Men's Association. It continued to publish reports of the Central Council meetings and other documents of the International. Marx remained on the Board of the Industrial Newspaper Company which owned the paper until 9 June 1866. Thanks to his efforts Eccarius, who became the editor of The Workman's Advocate not long before, retained his post. However, the reformist leaders of trade unions managed to paralyse the influence of Marx's supporters. In April 1866 George Odger was appointed its editor-in-chief. In issue No. 183, 8 September 1866, the newspaper declared itself to be the organ of the Reform League (see Note 155) and in fact fell under the influence of the radical bourgeoisie. It ceased publication on 20 July 1867.—224, 249, 252, 262, 283, 290, 574
[101] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].—68, 72, 77, 79, 94, 135, 159, 172, 227, 266, 289, 297, 299, 359, 362, 381, 383, 407, 423, 458, 519, 557
[227] After the publication of Part One of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859, Marx wrote a voluminous economic manuscript in 1861-63 which is a second, after the manuscript of 1857-58, detailed rough version of his future Capital. By 1863, Marx had finally decided to publish his work in 22« four books: the first three books — theoretical, and the fourth — historical-literary. Having completed the 1861-63 manuscript, in August 1863 Marx began preparing his Capital for the press. In the course of this work he wrote a third preparatory version of Capital—the Economic Manuscript of 1863-65 consisting of three theoretical books (the outline of the fourth book, Theories of Surplus Value, was in the 1861-63 manuscript). Subsequendy, having finished them, Marx again returned to the first book. On Engels' advice he decided to publish it before the others were ready. Marx gave the finishing touches to it in 1866 and most of 1867. The first German edition of the first book — Volume One of Capital—appeared in September 1867. As agreed with Otto Meissner, a Hamburg publisher, the second and third books, devoted to the analysis of the process of circulation of capital and the forms of capitalist production as a whole, were to be published as Volume Two of Capital, and the fourth book, on the 'history of economic theories', as the concluding volume, Volume Three, of Capital. However, during his lifetime Marx did not manage to prepare the last books of Capital for the press. It was Engels who after Marx's death did this and published his manuscripts of the second and third books, as Volume Two (1885) and Volume Three (1894) of Capital. Engels also intended to publish the above-mentioned manuscript of the fourth book, as Volume Four of Capital, but did not materialise this intention during his lifetime. In the present edition of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels, this book is included in the Economic Manuscript of 1861-63 (vols 30-34), while the first three volumes of Capital published in vols 35-37.—173, 227, 312
[6] This letter was published in English for the first time 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.—5, 193, 231, 330, 356, 397, 493, 553
[305] -phe full text of Engels' letter to Freiligrath cited below has not been found. Like the letter to Marx, it may have been written on about 10 March 1866 as a reply to Freiligrath's letter to Engels of 8 March 1866. In his letter Freiligrath expressed his anxiety about Marx's health, undermined by systematic night work, and wrote that a long rest in the countryside would restore his strength.—237
[307] From 15 March to approximately 10 April 1866 Marx stayed in Margate where he took treatment and had a rest.—239, 261, 268, 283, 574
[4] At the additional elections to the Corps législatif in March 1864 the Parisian workers put up their own candidate, the engraver Henri Tolain, whereas previously they voted for moderate bourgeois republicans. In the 'Manifesto of the Sixty' printed in February 1864 they explained this move by the need of the working class to have its own representatives in legislative bodies. The Corps législatif was established, alongside the State Council and the Senate, under the Constitution of 4 February 1852, following the Bonaparte coup d'état of 1851. The members of the State Council and the Senate were appointed by the head of state, while the Corps législatif was an elected body, the elections being supervised by state officials and the police, so that a docile majority was always ensured. As its powers were confined to endorsing bills drawn up by the State Council, the Corps législatif was, in effect, a screen for Napoleon Ill's unlimited rule.—4, 15, 47, 274, 318
[2] In his letter to Marx of 28 September 1864, Carl Klings, a former member of the Communist League (see Note 17), wrote about the situation in the General Association of German Workers after the death of its President, Ferdinand Lassalle, and about the forthcoming election of a new president. Bernhard Becker and Moses Hess were nominated candidates, and Klings asked Marx for advice. The General Association of German Workers, which was founded at the congress of workers' associations in Leipzig on 23 May 1863 and included a number of former members of the Communist League, promoted the development of the German working-class movement and helped its members to overcome the ideological influence of the liberal bourgeoisie. However, Lassalle and his followers channelled the Association's activity along reformist lines limiting it to the campaign for universal suffrage; their programme contained a Utopian demand for the establishment of state-subsidised produc-ers' co-operatives, which they regarded as the basic means for solving social contradictions. The leaders of the Association supported the Prussian government in its drive for the unification of Germany 'from above', through dynastic wars. The sectarian, nationalistic policy of the Lassallean leaders of the General Association made it difficult to draw the German proletariat into the International Working Men's Association (the First International) (see Note 5). By the beginning of the 1870s, however, the progressive-minded German workers had split away from Lassalleanism thanks to the consistent efforts of Marx, Engels and their associates. At a congress in Gotha in May 1875, the General Association of German Workers merged with the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Eisenachers) founded in 1869 and headed by August Bebel and Karl Liebknecht. The united party assumed the name of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.—3, 15, 58, 65, 75, 78, 103, 125, 135, 141, 150
[308] The reference is to the heated debates, which started on 6 February 1866 at the British Parliament session over the bill on compensation to the cattle-owners in the event of epizootic disease. The debates ended on 20 February with the adoption of the corresponding Act.—242, 245
[313] Marx and many of his supporters were unable to attend the Central Council meeting of 6 March 1866. Taking advantage of this, Le Lubez and L. Wolff, supported by the English trade unionists Odger, Howell, Cremer and others, had a resolution passed on the response by the Central Council to a slanderous article by Vésinier published in L'Echo de Verniers (see Note 274). The resolution stated that the Central Council withdrew on everything that had been said with regard to 'an eminent writer of the Latin race', i.e. Mazzini, and his followers. By this the refutation of Vésinier's statement that Mazzini was the author of the International's programme documents, specifically the Rules, was disavowed. As a result of the stand taken by Marx and his supporters, the resolution was withdrawn at the meeting of 13 March. Thus the claims of the petty-bourgeois elements to the leadership in the International were rebuffed. (For details of this episode see Marx's letter to Engels of 24 March 1866, this volume, pp. 249-50).—244, 251, 286
[155] On 23 February 1865 a public meeting was held in St Martin's Hall, London. On the initiative and with the direct participation of the Central Council of the International Association, the meeting passed a decision to found a Reform League as a centre of the mass electoral reform movement. The League's leading bodies — the Council and the Executive Committee — included the Central Council members of the International, mainly British trade union leaders. The programme of the movement was drafted under the influence of Marx who was advocating the independent position of the British working class in the reform campaign. Unlike the bourgeois parties, which confined their demand to household suffrage, the Reform League, on Marx's insistence, advanced the demand for manhood suffrage. The League had branches in all big industrial cities and in provinces. However, the vacillations of the bourgeois radical leaders, who became afraid of the movement's mass character, and the conciliation of the trade union leaders prevented the League from following the line charted by the Central Council of the International. The British bourgeoisie succeeded in splitting the movement, and a moderate reform was carried out in 1867 which granted franchise only to the petty bourgeoisie and the upper layers of the working class.—105, 108, 130, 150, 243, 251, 327, 574
[316] In the spring of 1866 the conflict between Prussia and Austria sharpened over their joint possession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The Bismarck government regarded Austria as its main rival in the struggle for hegemony in Germany and sought for a casus belli. With this aim in view it accused Austria, which ruled Holstein, of encouraging the anti-Prussian movement there. Austria rejected Prussia's accusations and on 16 March 1866 sent a circular dispatch to several member states of the German Confederation (a union of German states founded by the Vienna Congress in 1815) asking for their mediation in the conflict or military assistance against Prussia. Prussia in its turn also sought the support of the German Confederation. In its circular dispatch of 24 March 1866 to the German states, the Prussian government proposed a reform of the political and military institutions of the German Confederation. Bismarck demagogically proposed that this reform be carried out through a German parliament elected on the basis of universal suffrage.—254, 257, 258, 263, 264
[27] The original has 'inneren Düppel', an expression first used in the meaning of 'enemy within' in a political survey published in the Bismarckian Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on 30 September 1864. It became widely current later. Düppel (Dybböl)—Danish fortification in Schleswig which the Prussians captured by storm on 18 April 1864, during the war of Prussia and Austria against Denmark (see Note 9).—19, 121, 254, 256, 263
[203] At the battle of Jena (14 October 1806) the French army, commanded by Napoleon, routed the Prussian army, thus forcing Prussia to surrender.—153, 256, 277
[318] \ reference to Alexander Cuza's abdication in February 1866. Cuza was Hospodar of Moldavia and Wallachia, which united in 1862 into the single Romanian state. The coup d'état was approved of by Russia and France, and was supported by Prussia. The boyar-bourgeois coalition, which was dissatisfied with the progressive reforms introduced by Cuza, invited Prince Charles Hohenzollern-Sigmarinen, a relative of the Prussian King, to the throne in March 1866. The new hospodar soon began to pursue a policy of subjecting Romania to the economic and political interests of Germany.—256, 258
[321] A reference to the circular dispatch of 16 March 1866 sent by the Austrian government (see Note 316). On 9 April 1866, the Prussian government submitted to the Federal Diet a proposal that an all-German parliament be convened through universal suffrage in order to decide the question of reforming the German Confederation.—264, 266, 285
[152] The National Association (Deutscher National-Verein) was a party of the German liberal bourgeoisie which advocated the unification of Germany (without Austria) in a centralised state under the supremacy of the Prussian monarchy. Its inaugural meeting was held in Frankfurt am Main in September 1859. The National Association was dissolved in November 1867, after the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 and the establishment of the North German Confederation.—102, 163, 204, 207, 266, 280, 340, 361, 365, 372
[326] This is a reference to the resistance with which Russell-Gladstone Reform Bill (see Note 315) was met by the Conservatives and some Liberals. Marx calls the Right-wing Liberals, who were once headed by Lord Palmerston, Palmerstonian Whigs. In 1866, they were nicknamed the Adullamites by John Bright as an allusion to the biblical legend about David's persecution by King Saul and his refuge in the cave of Adullam. The nickname became a synonym for dissatisfaction with everything and was used to condemn the Right-wing Liberals for their opposition to the Reform Bill.—269, 270
[26] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877, Boston, Toronto, 1981.—19, 178, 225, 269, 309, 343, 348, 352, 370, 445, 450, 527, 538
[327] On 26 March 1866, Edinburgh tailors went on strike. With a view to preventing the importation into Scotland of German and Danish tailors to be used as strike-breakers, German tailors living in London formed a committee headed by Lessner and Haufe, and decided to act jointly with the Central Council of the International. At Marx's request, Lessner and Haufe sent him on 3 May details about the events in Edinburgh for use in a report for the German press. On 4 May, Marx wrote and sent Liebknecht, on behalf of the Central Council, a short article, entitled 'A Warning', which was published in several German papers (see present edition, Vol. 20). At the same time a leaflet written by Lessner and Haufe was issued in London. They appealed to the German workers in London to raise funds and support the strikers. Moreover, the Central Council sent Haufe and Hansen to Edinburgh to wreck the employers' plans. The Central Council's efforts contributed to the success of the strike, and promoted the International's influence in Britain.— 270, 272, 275
[328] A reference to the steps taken by Bismarck to find allies in the war with Austria that he was preparing. On 8 April 1866, Prussia and Italy signed a secret treaty under which they were to join in a war against Austria until Italy received Venetia and Prussia equivalent territories in Germany.— 270, 282, 288
[330] On 7 May 1866, Ferdinand Cohen, a student and Karl Blind's stepson, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Bismarck. He was arrested and committed suicide in prison.—273, 275
[354] 'Old Bess' or 'Brown Bess' were the names given to the flint-lock smooth-barrelled muzzle-loading gun used in the British army in the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.—291
[345] Xhis is a reference to Engels' intention to write articles for The Manchester Guardian on the Austro-Prussian war, which broke out in June 1866. He wrote a series of five articles, and they were published in the newspaper under the heading 'Notes on the War in Germany' (see present edition, Vol. 20). The Austro-Prussian war of 1866 put an end to the rivalry between Austria and Prussia, which had lasted for many years, and predetermined the unification of Germany under the supremacy of Prussia. Several German states (such as Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, and Württemberg) fought on Austria's side. Prussia formed an alliance with Italy. In June and July, hostilities were conducted on two fronts: in Bohemia and in Italy. After the grave defeat of her army at Sadowa, Austria began peace negotiations and signed a peace treaty in Prague on 23 August.—286, 290, 296, 298
[349] At the end of 1865 and the beginning of 1866, Bismarck conducted negotiations with Napoleon III through the Prussian ambassador to Paris, von der Holtz. In the course of die negotiations, wishing to secure France's neutrality in the war against Austria which was being prepared by him, Bismarck sought to make Napoleon believe that die war would be extremely exhaustive for Prussia and hinted vaguely at the possibility of territorial expansion for France at the expense of Belgium and Luxemburg, as well as certain German territories on the Rhine.—289, 293
[356] Certain South German states (such as Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden) took part in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 on the Austrian side.— 293, 295
[359] Blue Books—periodically published collections of documents of the British Parliament and Foreign Office. They have been appearing since the seventeenth century. Marx is referring to five reports of the Children's Employment Commission (1863-66) and the Eighth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council (1866) which was supplemented by Dr Hunter's report about the housing conditions of the workers; Dr Hunter's report was extensively used by Marx in Volume One of Capital (see the English edition of 1887, Part III, Chapter XXV and also Vol. 35 of the present edition).—296, 301, 383, 407, 551
[367] In May 1849, the republican Armand Marrast, President of the French Constituent Assembly, requested General Changarnier, a monarchist and commander of the Paris garrison, to bring in troops to defend the Assembly against the Bonapartists. Changarnier refused, declaring that he disapproved of 'baïonnettes intelligentes', i. e. soldiers meddling in politics.— 302
[373] This letter was first published in English in K. Marx, On Education, Women and Children, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1975.—310
[65] This letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx, Letters to Dr. Kugelmann, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.—45, 101, 220, 262, 311, 325, 327, 329, 346, 379, 395, 440, 449, 489, 496, 521, 528, 543, 551