1870
My dear Jung,
First Shaw's[511] funérailles, afterwards other incidents have prevented me from sending you earlier the 'missive' to Geneva."
There are des changements*(1) in the text — I have struck away, I have added some sentences, and very often corrected the phraseology.
Hence you must copy the thing anew (as quickly as possible) so that the text I send to day to Bruxelles be conform with that sent to Geneva. As soon as you have done, put the thing into the hands of Dupont.
With compliments to your family
Yours truly
Karl Marx
I have, besides the copy of the Geneva 'missive', made a full report to the Bruxelles Comité(2) 'pour les encourager' et aussi un peuc to show them the theoretical nonsense preached at Geneva.
277. Engels to Marx. 9 January
277
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 9 January 1870
Dear Moor,
A Happy New Year! I arrived back here at midday on Thursday, after thoroughly wrecking my stomach in Barmen with innumerable guzzlings.[513]
The people there are overjoyed, that is, the philistines are. The danger of war has now been finally overcome; Louis-Napoleon has once again finely maintained his superior wisdom through prudent compliance.[514] Bismarck is once again able to work, confidence is returning, COMMERCE must improve, and so 1870 must be an extremely blessed year for the honest German duffers. I cannot grasp how these people manage to take leave of more of their senses every year.
Hühnerbein, the old tailor and general of the revolution, was very pleased to see me. He still has a complete set of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung bound in red, which is good to know. He sends greetings; he has two very pretty daughters.
I did not go to Solingen[3] for the following reasons:
1. It would have been very difficult for me to get away for a day at HOLIDAY time;
2. I could not very well have asked for a closer look at the business without contributing a larger sum myself, which was not possible and
3. as a Party friend, I would have been forced to take the people's word for some things, and not to have insisted so strictly, like a complete stranger, on the presentation of all documents and SECURITIES; and Menke, as a result of my report, would perhaps refrain from sending anyone, and thus load me with a responsibility I would prefer to decline.
Now I shall wait for your reply and then wiite to the people.b
If I hadn't been so wrecked and, in addition, worried about Lizzie, whom I left unwell, and from whom I heard nothing all the time, I would have dropped in on you on the return journey.
Read practically no newspapers the whole time, but I see that
a See this volume, p. 401. - b Ibid., pp. 420-21.
278. Engels to Marx. 19 January
the Hatzfeldt, through Mende, has laid an interdict on Schweitzer[515]; things must be all over for Schweitzer soon. I shall presumably get details through you from the papers.
In Cologne I visited Klein[3] for a few moments. Was very cool; these people become so philistinised that we appear to really bother them. They now have an anti-ultramontane association, naturally including Cherethites and Pelethitesb (which means Cretans and Philistines according to Ewald's translation).
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
278
ENGELS TO MARX[180]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 19 January 1870
Dear Moor,
I hope you are having a better time with the infamous carbuncle following the lancing.c It's a ghastly business. Keep on with the arsenic till all the symptoms have disappeared, and then for at least another 3 months. I shall go to Gumpert in the next few days and ask him for his opinion,d but be so good as to let me know first for how long you stopped taking the arsenic, and when you began again, so I can answer his very first question.
I would have thought you really must realise that in the interests of your 2nd volume, ' too, you need a change of life-style. If there is a constant repetition of such suspensions, you will never get finished; with an increase in movement in fresh air, which will keep off the carbuncles, then sooner or later.
19 1870
Unfortunately, now that I can no longer call upon the packers in the WAREHOUSE I haven't such opportunities for sending wine as formerly. I must wait, as with Brauneberger, until I find a ready-packed crate, or depend somehow or other on chance. That is why the small crate of port I am sending you today, has proved so slim. It is an old butter crate from Renshaws; I could not get more than 5 bottles in the narrow space, and the thin boards would not have stood more weight. It should keep you going for a while, however.
The Peter Bonaparte business is a bang-up inauguration for the new era in Paris.3lb Louisb is décidément unlucky. For the bourgeois a very rude awakening from the illusion that the whole foundation of corruption and dirty work, carefully and slowly constructed over eighteen years, would disappear immediately noble Ollivier took over the helm. Constitutional Government with such a Bonaparte, such generals, prefects, police and Decembrists! The anxiety of the fellows, I mean the bourgeois, is nowhere more clearly expressed than in Prévost-Paradol's letter in Monday's Times.[5]^
The worst part of this business is that Rochefort thereby acquires a quite exaggerated nimbus. To be sure, though, the official Republicans are also a miserable lot.
John Bright deserves congratulations. The poor fellow is so helpless in his new and elevated situation that, despite all discretion, he promises the Irish FREE LAND and OPENING OF THE PRISON DOORS.[118] The latter naturally only to revoke it the following day, as soon as the slightest attempt is made to take him at his word. As far as FREE LAND is concerned, this was already — in Bright's sense, à
la FREE TRADE — introduced by the ENCUMBERED ESTATES COURT.
I have at last discovered a copy of Prendergastc in a local library, and hope to be able to obtain it. To my good or bad fortune, the ancient Irish laws[481] are now also appearing, and I shall have to wade through these as well. The more I study the subject, the clearer it becomes to me that, as a result of the English invasion, Ireland was cheated of its whole development, and thrown back centuries. And this ever since the 12th century; neither should it be forgotten, of course, that 300 years of invasion and plunder by the Danes had already dragged the country considerably backwards; but this had ceased more than 100 years earlier.
279. Marx to Engels. 22 January
In recent years there has been rather more criticism in Irish research, particularly in Petrie's antiquarian studies(1); he also forced me to read some Celtic-Irish (naturally with a parallel translation). It doesn't seem all that difficult, but I shan't delve deeper into the stuff; I'm already hobbled with enough philologi-cal nonsense. In the next few days, when I get the book, I'll see how the ancient laws have been dealt with.
I congratulate you on your progress in Russian. You will charm Borkheim, and it is also a good thing because mine has nearly all become very rusty again, and if you let yours become rusty again, then I shall have to start once more.
Best greetings to your wife and the girls. Lafargue is in a really frightful hurry.b
Your
F. E.
279
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 22 January 1870
DEAR FRED,
I am only writing you THESE FEW LINES today, since my left arm is under bandages and POULTICES, that is to say, not under my command.
The business was an ABSCESS connected with the GLANDS. In addition, a few other little things, which were put in order yesterday by being lanced. Today, everything in best progress; the doctor was fully satisfied.
The port, which arrived yesterday, is doing me a great service. You should not imagine that I have learned so much Russian IN A FEW WEEKS; I won't say as much as you have forgotten, but as much as would remain to you had you forgotten three times as much. I am still a beginner.
So Herzen is dead. Just about time I finished TwpbMa etc.[519]
Plenty of things have happened in the 'International', especially with regard to Bakunin's intrigues.[507] But too long to write about now.
The Paris MOVEMENTS are amusing.(2) Since Ollivier is also a FREE TRADER, he is naturally a man after the heart of the English philistine, who always forgets that what suits him must be, prima facie,b DISGUSTING to French Frenchmen.
MY COMPLIMENTS TO MRS Lizzie AND ALL OF THEM.
Your
Moor
What do you say to the clever-clever stuff in Zukunft, by means of which they attempt to push themselves out of the purely political camp!
Apropos. I still have a little note from Liebknecht[520] which arrived for you during your absence from England. But I can't look it out now amongst the mess of papers. Next time.
280. Marx to César De Paepe. 24 January[48]
Dear citizen De Paepe,
I am writing to you WITH SOME DIFFICULTY, as my left arm is bandaged. At the end of last month, an abscess of the gland began to form near the armpit. I neglected the thing, and I am punished for my sin. Several days after I sent the letter to Brussels,[512] the pain became intolerable and I fell into the hands of doctors. I underwent two operations, and I feel better, but I am still being treated and must stay at home.
In the first place, I am writing this letter to ask you a personal favour. You probably know that a part of the English bourgeoisie has formed a sort of LAND League[521] against the workers' LAND AND LABOUR LEAGUE.[43]' Their ostensible purpose is to transform English landed property into small-lot property, and to create a peasantry for the greater benefit of the people. Their real purpose is an attack against landed aristocracy. They want to throw land in free circulation in order to transfer it in this way from the hands of LANDLORDS into those of capitalists. To this effect, they published a series of popular tracts under the title of Cobden Treaties, in which small-scale property is painted in rosy colours. Their great battle-horse is Belgium (principally the Flemings). It would appear that in that country the peasants live under paradisiacal conditions. They established contact with Mr Laveleye who provides them with facts for their rhetoric. In the meantime, as I treat of landed property in Volume Two of Capital,[1]*[1] I believe it useful to go into some detail there on the structure of landed property in Belgium and of Belgian agriculture.[322] Will you have the goodness to send me the titles of the principal books which I must consult[523]?
My illness has naturally prevented me from attending the General Councila in the last weeks. Yesterday evening, the subcommittee (the executive committee) of which I am a member visited me. Among other things, they communicated to me the content of a letter sent by Mr Hins to Stepney. As Stepney believed that I would be able to attend the session of the General Council (on 25 January), he did not communicate to me any extracts from that letter. I do not know any of it except from h ")24 earsay.
In the first place, it is probably believed in Brussels that the catastrophe of Geneva, the change in the staff of L'Egalité,[523] was produced by resolutions of the General Council.b That is an error. Jung was so busy with his work as watchmaker that he did not find the time to copy the resolutions and dispatch them to Geneva
before 16 January. In the interval, he received two letters from H. Perret, secretary of the Romance Committee. The first letter, dated 4 January, is official. It is a communication of the Romance Committee to the General Council stating that some editors of L'Égalité convened to wage a public campaign against the General Council and the Swiss Committees with which they were not in accord, but that they acted against the will of the Romance Committee.
The second letter, of a later date but arriving also before the resolutions of the General Council were dispatched by Jung, is a confidential letter sent by Perret to Jung, I am giving you literal extracts from it to put you in the picture. As the letter is private, I need not tell you that these extracts must not be communicated to the Belgian Committee or that the name of the writer must remain a secret.[526]
'...Bakunin has left Geneva. So much the better. Those kind of people bring discord among us. He was the head of the Alliance?[51] These democrats are authoritarians, they do not want any opposition; such are Bakunin, Perron and Robin; these three were at the head of L'Egalité. Bakunin, with his personal attacks, cost us 200 or 300 subscribers in Geneva. Robin is even more authoritarian, his ambition was to change everything here; he has not succeeded, we do not wish to allow ourselves to be dominated by these gentlemen who believe themselves to be indispensable. They attempted to bring pressure to bear on the Federal Committee, and that did not succeed; we do not want to engage in adventures with them or to bring discord in our sections. Please believe me that l'Alliance is dangerous for us, especially now. As for their plan in Geneva, I guessed it a long time ago: to let the men of l'Alliance move to the top of all the societies in order to dominate the Federation. If you knew their mode of action—denigrating at the sections the people who do not let themselves be dominated by them; they did everything to push my candidature out of the way in Basle, the same thing in Grosselin... You see the manoeuvre — sending to Basle no one but members of the l'Alliance, Heng, Brosset, Bakunin. That did not succeed at all. Besides, he a worked on the delegations at Lyons, at Naples; these methods are not ethical. They left for Basle before us to prepare their intrigues... Here is something that happened at the Congress, something I guessed about but had no certain proof of. Martinaud, delegate of the Neuchâtel section, had a mandate signed by the brother of Guillaume,52,7 a forged, false mandate — we have proof of that in our hands. The Neuchâtel section was not yet definitively constituted, and the provisional committee wrote to us not to recognise either Guillaume or Martinaud. These are the morals of the apostles of l'Alliance, for Guillaume and some others from Locle are their friends. Besides, the creation of Progrès has lured away subscribers to L'Égalité, although our journal was founded by all and we must support it.
'The last bit of news: the cut-throats of l'Alliance have just handed in their resignation from L'Égalité—Perron, Robin and some others, more or less capable ones. A little coup d'état à la Bakunin and à la Robin. They wanted to force the hand of the Federal Committee, that it might dismiss from the staff a memberb who offered opposition and who condemned attacks made against various committees and the General Council. We do not wish to increase the authority of these gentlemen, we are going to have a quiet fight with them yet, but it seems that l'Alliance loses many of its members; it is diminishing — so much the better.' So much for the extracts from Perret's letter. If Mr Hins has not yet communicated my letter (and the resolutions of the General Council) to the Belgian Council,[512] it would be better to suppress entirely the paragraph about Bakunin. I have no copy of it, but I know that I wrote it in irritation brought on by physical suffering. Thus I do not doubt that Mr Hins justly blames me for the form of that paragraph. As to the substance and the facts, they are independent both from my bad manner of expression and the good opinion of Mr Hins about Bakunin. The fact is that l'Alliance, of which Bakunin is the creator and which has not been dissolved except nominally, is a danger to the International Association and an element of disorganisation.
In the paragraph concerning Bakunin, I am told that Mr Hins again picks up the phrase 'le bonhomme Richard'." That is a SLIP OF THE PEN, which I regret all the more as Richard is one of the most active members of the Association. I used the phrase only to say that, in the correspondence cited here, he accepts with a great deal of simple-mindedness opinions which he never fathomed. Besides, when I wrote those words, Richard had just given a fresh proof of his thoughtlessness. He had sent to the Council a letter in which a judgement was expressed declaring certain persons belonging to a would-be schismatic Lyons branch to be infamous traitors expelled from the Association. We are asked to copy this judgement, to stamp and sign it, and to return it by post. And that without proof, without documents, without giving those condemned the right to defend themselves.
I am also told that Mr Hins reproaches the English Report on the Basle Congressb for having suppressed everything related to the question of heritage. That is obviously a misunderstanding. On pages 26-29 we find the report of the General Council/ the report of the committee appointed at Basle, and a summary of the discussion on this question. Moreover, the English Report on the transactions of the Congress was written by Eccarius. The Council appointed a commission to examine that report. Although I was appointed a member of this commission, I refused to take part in its work as I had not been present at the Congress and was thus not competent to judge the exactness of the report. My entire collaboration was restricted to purely stylistic improvements.
Finally, if the resolutions passed by the General Council were
281. Engels to Marx. 25 January
not good enough to satisfy Mr. Hins, they obviously satisfied the Romance Committee, for two weeks after their adoption it passed the resolution to free itself from the dictatorship of l'Alliance.
Yours very truly,
K. M.
281
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 25 January 1870 Dear Moor,
It was a great RELIEF to learn that, this time, it was only a glandular abscess, not a carbuncle. In view of your decisively anti-lymphatic temperament, the involvement of the gland (axil-laris) can only be secondary and not mean anything. This state of affairs is fully explained by the prolonged neglect that arose from you treating the thing as a carbuncle.
Prendergasta—finally received, and, as always happens, two copies at once; W. H. Smith & Sons have also got hold of one. I shall be finished with it tonight. The book is important because of the many excerpts from unpublished documents. No wonder it is OUT OF PRINT. Longman & Co. must have been furious at having been induced to put their name on such a book, and since there was certainly little demand for it in England (Mudies have not a single copy), they will have sold the edition for pulping as soon as possible, or, also possible, have sold the edition to a syndicate of Irish LANDLORDS (for the same purpose), and will certainly not print a 2nd. What the author says about the Anglo-Norman period is correct in so far as those Irish and Anglo-Irish who lived at some distance from the Pale,[445] continued during that period to live
282. Marx to Engels. 27 January
roughly the same old casual life which preceded the settlement; and that the wars, too, in this period were more easy-going in character (with a few exceptions), and had not the distinctly devastating character they assumed in the 16th century, and which became the rule thereafter. But his theory that the enormous amiability of the Irishmen, and particularly Irishwomen, immediately disarms every immigrant, however hostile, is just THOROUGHLY IRISH, since the Irish way of thinking lacks all distinction of degree.
A new edition of Giraldus Cambrensis has been published: Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, edidit J. S. Brewer, London, Longman & Co. 1863, at least 3 volumes; could you find out the price for me, and whether it would be possible to get cheaply, SECOND HAND, the whole work, or at least the volume containing 'Topographie Hiberniae', and possibly also 'Hibernia expugnata'. [6 2 8]
In order not to make a fool of myself over Cromwell, I shall have to mugup considerably more on the English history of the period. This will d o no harm, but will steal a lot of time.
I am reading the French papers with thanks and interest, and will return them tomorrow with several numbers of Zukunft. This paper is becoming more and more depressing and difficult for both readers and writers.
It is close of post, so adieu. Best greetings to all.
Your
F. E.
282
MARX T O ENGELS [1 8 0] abscess, nearly the size of an egg. But IN A FEW DAYS ALL WILL BE QUITE
RIGHT.
It is curious how doctors have differing opinions. Dr Maddison, who was employed in Edinburgh in a hospital for skin diseases, and still works in this branch, in addition to his practice in a London hospital, states that in both hospitals they are completely against arsenic for carbuncles, though use arsenic for rashes. As long as I am in his care, which comes to an end this week, I naturally take his medicine. As soon as this finishes, I shall take arsenic regularly for 3 months for il faut en finir*
Enclosed — the announced note from Wilhelm.[520] If you write to him, do inform him, in passing (referring to the screed he sent you for me) that 1. if all newspapers write as much about the 18th Brumaire as his,b that is to say, not at all, it is not surprising that nobody hears of it; and 2. that if this material cannot be obtained in Leipzig (which I regard as humbug), he should not write to me, but to Meissner direct.
Enclosed — letter from Dr J. Jacoby to Kugelmann, and note from Kugelmann. The matter is as follows: Kugelmann saw in supplement No. 18 of Zukunft (22 January) a SPEECH by Jacoby, in which the latter avows socialism and, in the main part of the same issue, the story of the meeting at which this happened, when Schweitzer seized the presidency with the help of his bullyboys and, after the end of Jacoby's speech, accused him, inter alia, of borrowing arguments from me. Kugelmann wrote with his usual fervour to Jacoby on this, congratulating him and, at the same time, dressing him down for quoting all sorts of people, but precisely not me, who had supplied him with his real matter. H T 524
ENCE JACOBY'S REPLY. ' The odd thing is only that Jacoby — during the meeting, in answer to Schweitzer — said that I myself 'utilise in my works the labours of my predecessors on countless occasions'. Since I conscientiously cite everybody who contributed as much as a comma to the exposition, this means that Jacoby can take the substance of his new beliefs from me, without citing me. In addition, I am not a 'predecessor' of 70-year-old Jacoby. A mere populariser and superficialiser has no 'predecessors'. Yet despite all this, it is very fine that Jacoby, like Arnold Ruge, has been converted to communism.'' 'Liberty' no longer suffices!
I am sending you the latest issue of the Democratic News. The sheet is no good, but it is in the hands of our own chaps, and
283. Engels to Marx. 1 February
could be made into a counterbalance to the Bee-Hive, particularly since it only costs 1 HALFPENNY. You and Moore should both subscribe to 12 COPIES, since a similar subscription has also been imposed upon members of the General Council. In addition, one or the other of you could send me quite short reports about Lancashire etc., weekly or bi-weekly, for the sheet.
Salut
Your
K. M.
283
ENGELS TO MARX[33]
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 1 February 1870
Dear Moor,
I only received the relevant Zukunft yesterday evening, so I can only return the Jacobyana(1) today. It is very clear why the old Yid did not name you; he was sheepishly ashamed of himself, but he should at least have known that, once Schweitzer had been elected president, or was simply present, the plagiarism would certainly be rammed down his throat; but an old wiseacre like he always thinks, in his stupidity, that things might go well. If conversions continue like this, we shall soon dislodge old almighty God from the Rhenish proverb which states that he 'keeps curious company'.
I shall try to raise subsidies for the Democratic News. 12-fold subscriptions can lead to nothing, as we have simply no use here for the piles of waste paper. And I don't know, either, what could be reported from here.
I shall inform Wilhelm suitably; I presume he has never spoken in his sheetb about the 18th Brumaire. That not a single copy can be obtained in Leipzig is certainly a lie, unless the whole edition has been sold out. Apropos, how do things stand with the French translation of it, and of your book[580]?
I shall send Wilhelm the Peasant War, but shall only write the introduction for the complete publication. There is no sense in writing an introduction for a serial publication that might drag on for 6 months or more.[486]
It is a real stroke of luck that, despite G. Flourens, no blow was struck at Noir's funeral. The fury of Pays shows the Bonapartists'(2)
great disappointment. They could not wish for anything better than to catch all the revolutionary masses of Paris en flagrant délitb
on the open field outside Paris, even outside the fortifications, which only have a few passages. Half a dozen cannon at the posterns, an infantry regiment in skirmishing order, and a brigade of cavalry to lay about and pursue — and, in the space of half-an-hour, the entire unarmed crowd — the few revolvers some might carry in their pockets would not count — would be routed, cut down or captured. Since they have 60,000 soldiers, they could even let them enter the fortifications, occupy these, shoot down with grapeshot and ride down the crowd in the open terrain of the Champs Elysées and on the Avenue de Neuilly. Delightful! 200,000 unarmed workers should, from the open field, conquer Paris occupied by 60,000 soldiers!
The French newspapers arrived this morning. Best thanks. Have you read a full translation of Land and Freedom (the Russian thing)[531]? I now have one; you can have it.
Best greetings to your wife, Jenny and Tussy.
Your
F. E.
284. Engels to Karl Klein and Friedrich Moll. 8 February
IN SOLINGEN
Manchester, 8 February 1870 86 Mornington Street, Stockport Road
Dear Friends,
I must apologise very much for having left your letter of 3 December unanswered until today.[498] My only excuse is that I wanted to write something really nice, so I had to look around first, also in the interests of the cooperative. If I now have no very good news, this is, as you will see, not my fault.
I remember Solingen well from anno 48 and 49. Not only were the workers of Solingen at that time the most developed and most determined in the Rhine Province, as was also shown by the Elberfeld affair; I have a reason to be personally grateful to them, since the Solingen column, with which I marched to Elberfeld, supported me and guarded me there against the cowardly and treacherous Committee of Public Safety of the bourgeois 'radicals'. Had it not been for the Solingers, these bourgeois would have bunged me into jail, where I would probably have been left as an expiatory sacrifice for the Prussian gentlemen.[532] And I know full well that, during the whole period of the Lassallean triumphal processions, the Solingers did not behave as disciples of the new teaching, but as people who had belonged to the socialist movement for many years, who could, of course, join the new Association,[104] but did not need to learn anything from it. And I know very well, how, when Lassalle was being idolised as a new messiah, Friend Klein had the courage to remind him and the workers that the people round the Neue Rheinische Zeitung had already contributed something towards the independence of the workers.[466]
Thus, it is doubly painful to me that my own means do not permit me to give the cooperative a helping hand in a way that would be of special use to it. The little money I have is so tied up that, with the best will in the world — and certainly for the next few years at least — I cannot get at it, not even for my personal ends. I can thus only dispose of my income, which is not brilliant in the circumstances here. But to show my good will, at least, I enclose 50 thaler in one Prussian banknote I. Lit. C. N. 108,126; I would ask you to send me the relevant bond title; the interest, however, should be credited not to me, but to the reserve fund of the cooperative.
Together with Marx, with whom I have discussed the matter,(1) I have looked around to see whether we might drum up money for the cooperative in some other way. Marx knows some people who have means, and who can be assumed to have good will. But the man b through whom we would have to manoeuvre this is away for a number of months, and until then nothing can be done. We intend to do the following: if we succeed in interesting these people in the matter, we shall ask them to send somebody to Solingen to inspect the state of the cooperative himself. It would then be necessary for this person to be shown all the books and records and be provided with all the necessary explanations with the greatest frankness. Otherwise, you cannot ask people to put money into a business and, if I were myself in a position to advance a larger sum, then I would come to Solingen and ask for the same. In business matters everybody has the duty to look out for himself, since anybody can make a mistake, particularly somebody who is interested in a certain thing. In addition, such a person — who naturally would be a complete stranger to Solingen — would have to give his word of honour that he would make no use of the information thus obtained. And when this person has convinced himself of the reliability of the business and the trustworthiness of the management, we hope a decent sum will be taken up in bonds.
I naturally give you this simply as our plan of operations, and would not like you to set great hopes in it already, as it is clear that we cannot just dispose of other people's money. I would not for the world wish the cooperative, basing itself upon such prospects, which might come to fruition at the earliest in months, or perhaps not at all, let itself in for transactions that would tie up its means, and get it into difficulties. I can only promise that we shall do our best in this matter, and remain, with best wishes for the success of the cooperative and the prosperity of all members, with greetings and a handshake
Frederick Engels My address is now as above.
285. Engels to Marx. 9 February
286. Marx to Engels. 10 February
285
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 9 February 1870
Dear Moor,
Either you are sick, or you once again cramming yourself into sickness; otherwise one would hear from you.
The blasted:
Ancient Laws of Ireland.—Senchus Mor.—PART I AND II, DUBLIN, PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY, STATIONERY OFFICE,[3] the 2nd part of which appeared 3-4 weeks ago, are said to be 'REPRINTING', and lay me completely by the heels. QUERY, can one get something of this sort SECOND HAND in London?
So Rochefort has quietly been put in quod. Ollivier obviously wants a collision; the barricade attempts will presumably turn out to be 'white smock'[533] pranks. And if Ollivier doesn't want a collision, then Bonaparte, behind his back, does.
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
286
MARX TO ENGELS[534]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 February 1870
DEAR FRED,
I first went out again last Saturday, but as a result of this damned foggy weather immediately contracted a sort of inflammation of the tonsils. The body is naturally sensitive after some weeks of SEQUESTRATION. A north-east wind is howling here and, under the circumstances, prolongs imprisonment. But I hope to have my throat ALL RIGHT again in the course of this week.
On Sunday, LITTLE Dakyns (the geologist) visited me. I invited him for next Sunday. His Scottish cap was the sole MEMENTO of his costume as Felix Holt, THE RASCAL. (1) He was as sprightly as ever, and Tussy was DELIGHTED to see him.
As far as new things are concerned — such as the Irish Laws, etc.b—it is very difficult to get them here SECOND HAND.
Laura writes to us today, inter alia, that since last June the excitement in Paris has been steadily rising. Since the Victor-Noirc
tragic balladry,[516] the females in the working strata have gone daft, and you know what that means in Paris.
Flourens, the CRACK-BRAINED youngster, is the son OF LATE Flourens, secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie, who always adhered to the existing government throughout his nearly 100 years of life, and who was, in turn, Bonapartist, legitimist, Orleanist and again Bonapartist. During the last years of his life he still made himself noticeable with his fanaticism against Darwin.
Apropos, about Napoleon I. In one of the copies of Cloche that you have, there is, in one of the memoirs — I no longer remember which — a passage about the wretched behaviour of the hero.d
Jennychen wants to have the quotation. She has had a squabble at the Monroes' about it, where they wished to deny the FACTS.
I have read the first 150 pages of Flerovsky's booke (taken up with Siberia, North Russia and Astrakhan). This is the first work to tell the truth about Russian economic conditions. The man is a determined enemy of what he calls 'Russian optimism'. I never held very rosy views about this communist El Dorado, but Flerovsky surpasses all expectations. It is, in fact, rum, and at any event sign of a change, that something like this can be published in Petersburg.
'y HacT> npoAeTapieBT> MaAo, HO 3aTO Macca Hamero paôonaro KAacca COCTOHTT, H3T> paôoTHHKOBt, KOTopwxi, yiacTb xy»e MÎ>MT> ynacTb BCHKaro npoAeTapin.'(2)
The method of presentation is quite original; sometimes it reminds you most of Monteil.£ You can see that the man has travelled about everywhere and observed things for himself. Blazing hatred of LANDLORD, capitalist and official. No socialist doctrine, no mysticism about the land (although he favours the form of communal property), no nihilistic extravagance. Here and there a certain amount of well-meaning twaddle, which is, however, suited to the stage of development of the people for whom the book is intended. At all events, it is the most important book published since your work on the Condition of the Working-Class. And the family life of the Russian peasants is also well depicted — with the awful beating-to-death of their wives, the drinking, and the concubines. It would, therefore, be very opportune if you would send me the fantasy-lies of Citizen Herzen.[3]
You will recall that Égalité, inspired by Bakunin, attacked the GENERAL COUNCIL, made all sorts of interpellations publicly, and threatened more.(3) A communicationb—which I composed — was, thereupon, sent to the Comité Romand in Geneva, and ditto to all the other Comités of French tongue corresponding with us. Result: The entire Bakunin gang has quit Egalité. Bakunin himself has taken up residence in Tessin, and will continue intriguing in Switzerland, Spain, Italy and France. Now the armistice is at an end between us, since he knows that I attacked him heatedly and inveighed against him on the occasion of the latest Geneva événements? The brute really imagines that we are 'too bourgeois' and, therefore, incapable of grasping and esteeming his lofty cohcepts about 'inheritance right', 'equality', and the replacement of the present state systems by 'l'Internationale'. Nominally, his 'Alliance de la Démocratie Socialiste'c'd has been dissolved, but, in fact, continues. From the enclosed copy of a letter (which you must return to me) from H. Perret, secrétaire du Conseil Romand, to Jung,[530] you will see that, in fact, the catastrophe in Geneva took place before they received our communication there. This, however, strengthened the new status rerum.e The Belgian 'Conseil' (Brussels) has officially declared itself completely in favour of our stand against Egalité, but the secrétaire of the Belgian COUNCIL, Hins (brother-in-law of De Paepe, but fallen out with him), has sent a letter to Stepney[324] in which he takes Bakunin's side, accuses me of supporting the reactionary party amongst the Geneva workers, etc., etc.
287. Engels to Marx. 11 February
Did you notice, in one of the copies of Marseillaise sent to you, that Mr K. Blind had inserted an advertisement for K. Blind in the aforesaid sheet, according to which the aforesaid Blind was sent to Paris as 'ambassador' with General Schurz (Schütz does not sound good enough), was exiled from Paris by Bonaparte, and still is! and also was previously member of the German National Assembly[537]1
M Y COMPLIMENTS TO M R S LIZZIE AND FRIENDS.
K. M.
[Postscript from Eleanor Marx]
MY DEAR Engels,
I AM VERY MUCH OBLIGED TO YOU FOR SENDING ME THAT ADVERTISEMENT. T H E SITUATION IS ONE THAT WILL SUIT ME VERY WELL, SO I SHALL LOSE NO TIME IN APPLYING FOR IT. YOU WILL I AM SURE GIVE ME A REFERENCE.
WITH THANKS AND BEST LOVE TO ALL. GOOD BYE.
TUSSY.
287
ENGELS TO MARX[180]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 11 February 1870
Dear Moor,
Your tonsil business, following the abscess in your auxiliary gland, doesn't make me very happy. In any case, it shows that something is not quite kosher about your lymphatic system. If the business does not clear up soon, I would ask Allen, who made such a correct prognosis about my glandular business. Yours, however, is obviously chronic, whilst mine was extremely acute; but better is better.
I am sending you, enclosed, what I've written for Liebknecht[520]
as an introduction to the Peasant Wart Since, in this connection, it is not possible to steer clear of the year 1866, which has hitherto been avoided, we shall have to reach an agreement on what to say about it. Other remarks would also be welcome.
Further, Wilhelmchen's reply.[538] Totally Wilhelm. He didn't know at all that the 18th Brumaire had been published. On the other hand, / should immediately send him my address. Since he had no longer sent me his sheet, his excuse is that / must have left my address. And now this penance — belatedly throwing the whole Volksstaat from 1 October onwards at my head!
I would ask for the earliest return of these two documents, so I might send Wilhelmchen what he wants and have him leave me in peace.
Today I returned to you, per Globe Parcel Co., all copies of Cloche, Lanterne, Marseillaise, Figaro, etc. that I had here. The relevant number of Cloche is among them.[535] Since Jennychen collects these things, it is best if she has them all together. I have only kept one Marseillaise here, containing the business about the guncotton[539]; I wish to examine Chlormeier(1) further about it.
Dakyns wanted to visit you before Christmas, and wrote to Moore for your address. He, whose insight into character and sense of judgement is not, however, always unexceptionable, gave him such a picture of your inaccessibility at home that I said immediately that poor Dakyns would be quite unnecessarily intimidated. So I wanted to give you Dakyns' address last time, but forgot; but I told Moore immediately that he should not put such nonsense into Dakyns' head.
The sentence quoted from Flerovskyb is the first Russian sentence I have understood completely without a dictionary. What is the Russian title of the book? I shall acquire it for myself. What I wanted to send you was not Herzen, but the German translation of 3eMJiH u eojin, Land and Freedom, by the aristocrat Lilienfeld,c
which also describes the bad results of freedom for the peasants, and the resulting decay of agriculture.[631] I wrote to you about this more than a year ago,(2) and since then Borkheim has also acquired it and, I believe, translated passages from it for you. As soon as I have read it through, I'll send you it.
Ferret's letter[536] also returned, enclosed. It's a good thing Bakunin has gone to Tessin. He won't create much trouble there, and it proves the business in Geneva is over. Since there are simply such ambitious vain incompetents in every movement, it is au fond* good that they join together in their own way, and after that move into the public eye with their cosmic whimsies. Then it soon becomes possible to demonstrate to the world that it is all gas. And this is better than if the struggle stays in the field of private gossip, in which people who have something to do are never a match for those who have the whole day for forming cliques. But an eye must be kept on the fellows, so they do not manage to occupy the field somewhere or another without resistance. Spain and Italy will have to be left to them, of course, at least for the time being.
It would be a very good thing if Mr Rochefort, or as Lizzie says RUSHFORTH, were to go missing in prison for a while.[533] The petite presse is quite a good thing, but when it supplants everything else I lose my taste for it. It still has in its bones the whole quality of its origins in the bas-empire!' And when Rochefort preaches unity of the bourgeois and the worker, it is even funny. On the other hand, the 'serious' leaders of the movement are, for their part, really comically serious. It is truly marvellous. The SUPPLY of heads, which, until '48 the proletariat obtained from other classes, appears to have dried up completely, and in all countries. The workers seem to be increasingly constrained to do it themselves.
What is l'illustre Gaudissartc up to? I hear and see nothing of him. Hasn't he got any business again yet?
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
288. Marx to Engels. 12 February
288
MARX TO ENGELS[174]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 12 February 1870
DEAR FRED,
Allen visited me yesterday. Nothing but a simple chill. He advised me, however, to continue my house arrest until the Russian wind 'WHICH BLOWS NO GOOD TO ANYBODY' ceases.
Your introduction3 is very good. I know of nothing that should be altered or added. I agree verbotenush with your treatment of 1866. The double thrust at Wilhelm0 of the People's Party[38] and Schweitzer, with his bodyguard of ruffians, is very pretty.
Regarding the EXCUSES made by Wilhelm,[538] one never knows whether he is lying intentionally, or whether everything is revolving in confusion like a mill-wheel in his head. The FACT is that I wrote to Meissner from Hanover that he should send COPIES'1 to Wilhelm, Zukunft and Schweitzer, and the latter immediately published a detailed announcement.0 Additionally: Wilhelm's friends — Bonhorst and Bracke—saw the new edition when they visited Hanover,' and told me that they had reached agreement with Meissner on the publication of a cheaper, popular edition. Meissner wrote to me about it. I agreed this edition should consist of 2,000 copies, of which 1,000 should be supplied to Bonhorst, etc., at cost price. They pledged themselves to see to the placing of this 1,000. I've heard nothing about the matter since. We should now put Wilhelm to the test. Write to him that he should write to Meissner, asking how it is that he has not advertised the 18th Brumaire either in
Volksstaat or in Zukunft, and ditto, despite my instructions from Hanover, why he has sent neither him nor Weiss of Zukunft COPIES? The reply from Meissner would, at the same time, give me an opportunity to have a serious word with the latter about his sloppiness.
I agree entirely with your marginal notes on the FRENCH RADICAL PRESS.3 Not for nothing was Proudhon the socialist of the Imperial period. I am firmly convinced that, although the first blow will come from France, Germany is far riper for a social movement, and will grow far over the heads of the French. It is a great error and self-deception on their part that they still regard themselves as the 'chosen people'.
Apropos. Jennychen heard whispers yesterday at Monroe's that Mr John Bull Bright is not in the country as the papers report, but in town in the care of a mad-doctor. Softening of the brain HAS AGAIN SET IN. On the occasion of Castlereagh's suicide, Cobbett noted, that England DURING ONE OF ITS MOST CRITICAL EPOCHS, WAS GOVERNED BY A MADMAN.b And the same again today, during the Irish crisis.
It's extremely amusing that Bouverie, THIS INCARNATION OF PURE WHIGGISM, should find the proceedings quoad" O'Donovan to be illegal.[040] Bouverie is furious that he was given the COLD SHOULDER in the distribution of offices.
The title of the book by H. (pjiepoecuiu: ' rioÄOjKeuie paöouazo wiacca et> Pocciu', C.-llemep6ypzz>. Hsdauie H. n. IJoMKoea. 1869.44S
One of the things that amuses me very much in Flerovsky is his polemic against the peasants' direct dues. It is a complete reproduction of Marshal Vauban and Boisguillebert.d He also feels that the situation of the country people has its analogy in the period of the old French monarchy (since Louis XIV). Like Monteil,e he has a great feeling for national characteristics—'the straightforward Kalmyck', 'the Mordvinian, poetic despite his dirt' (whom he compares to the Irishman), the 'agile, epicurean, lively Tartar', the 'talented Little Russian', etc. Like a good Russian, he tells his fellow-countrymen what they should do to turn the hatred all these races feel for them into the opposite. As an example of the hatred, he cites, for instance, a genuinely Russian colony from Poland which moved to Siberia. These people know only Russian, not a word of Polish, but they regard themselves as Poles, and foster a Polish hatred of the Russians, etc.
His book shows incontestably that the present conditions in Russia are no longer tenable, that the emancipation of the serfs OF COURSE only hastened the process of disintegration, and that fearful social revolution is at the door. Here, too, you see the real roots of the schoolboy nihilism that is now the fashion among Russian students, etc. In Geneva, BY THE BY, a new colony of exiled Russian students has grown up with a programme proclaiming opposition to pan-Slavism, which should be replaced by the 'International'.(1)
In a special section, Flerovsky demonstrates that the 'Russifica-tion' of alien races is a sheer optimistic delusion, even in the East.
You don't need to send me Lilienfeld." Gaudissartb has it in Russian and German. He announced his return to me the day before yesterday. According to an earlier communication from his wife to mine, he had found a new post. But it surprises me that he doesn't mention this in his latest epistle.
Enclosed, it must be returned, a copy of the letter from Hins to Stepney? In my reply c I gave the fellow a thorough dressing down. The exact manner in which he informs himself is shown by the following points, amongst others. He says that, in our Report on the Basle Congress" we suppressed the discussion on the right of inheritance. Bakunin probably palmed this off on him, and he believes it, although he has our Report in his hands and knows enough English to read it! He speaks of 'my' letter to Geneva, though I have not addressed a line there! My expostulation about Bakunin's goings-on is in my letter to Brussels, in which — apart from communicating the missive of the GENERAL COUNCIL to Ge-nevad— I had to give a general report and communicate the appointment of a new secretary for Belgium (Serraillier, ouvrier
bottiere from Marseilles). He accuses us of having provoked the crisis in Geneva which —as Egalité shows—ended more than a week before our MISSIVE arrived there, etc. The Belgian Conseil Général* has, despite Hins, declared its full agreement with us.
Curious that OLD Beckerf announced his withdrawal from the editorial committee of Égalité[525] together with the other Bakunin-
289. Engels to Marx. 17 February
ists. At the same time, he publishes in his Vorbote the exact opposite of what Bakunin did in Egalité?[42] The old confusionist!
Salut.
Your
K. M.
289
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 17 February 1870
Dear Moor,
I have written the necessary to Wilhelm.[3] I'm now eager to hear how he will extricate himself.
For a long time I have seen nothing more ridiculous than Flourens' letter about his heroic deeds in Belleville, where he 'had possession of a whole faubourg(1) for 3 hours'. The start is wonderful, where he calls on the people to follow him, but only 100 go along, and these soon melt away to 60, and then these evaporate, until he, finally alone 'with one lad',[543] is beaten in the theatre.
The story about Bright is very odd.b He has had one such attack already, and had to go to the country for 2 years fishing.
The story about the Russians changed into Poles is absolutely Irish. I must have Flerovskyc; unfortunately, I won't, fpr the time being, have any time to plough through it.
Hins returned — enclosed. The letter is obviously only written for you.d
Yesterday I was at a fine blow-out, twelve of us, nothing but Tories, merchants, manufacturers, calico-printers, etc. The fellows all agreed that:
17 1870
1. for the past 3 years here in Lancashire THE HANDS HAD BEEN
ALWAYS IN THE RIGHT AND THE MASTERS ALWAYS IN THE WRONG (SHORT TIME VERSUS
REDUCTION OF WAGES);
2 . t h e BALLOT WAS NOW NECESSARY TO PROTECT THE CONSERVATIVE VOTERS, and
3. England would be a republic in 25 years, and even earlier unless the Prince of Wales," makes himself very popular.
It's amusing how people gain insight as soon as their party is OUT OF OFFICE, and how quickly they lose it as soon as they are IN.
Apropos. You probably know that, in LADY Mordaunt's DIVORCE TRIAL, the 'SOME OTHER PERSON' with whom she had a CRIMINAL CONNECTION is the Prince of Wales.
So Gladstone the mountain has successfully been delivered of his Irish mouse.[344] I really don't know what the Tories could have against this BILL, which is so indulgent with the Irish LANDLORDS, and finally places their interests in the tried and trusty hands of the Irish lawyers. Nevertheless, even this slight restriction of the eviction right will result in an end to the excessive emigration, and will put a stop to the conversion of arable land into pasture. But it is very jolly if the worthy Gladstone should think that he has abolished the Irish question by means of this new prospect of endless procedure.
Is it possible to get a copy of the BILL? It would be very important for me to be able to follow the debates on the individual clauses.
You in London can have no idea of the way the telegraph has broken down since it was taken over by the Government. Only the first third of Gladstone's speech was published in yesterday's papers here, and even this was pure nonsense!' The LATEST TELEGRAMS are all 24 hours later than before, so that, if you want to know something, you have to wait for the London newspapers to arrive. A telegram from here to Nottingham, handed in on Thursday, arrived Monday.
You know that, for the past 3-4 years, there has been a big squabble between Prussian and Austrian historians about the Peace of Basle,[545] because Sybel claimed that Prussia was forced to conclude it because it had been betrayed by Austria in Poland/ Now Sybel once again has a long story about it, from the Austrian archives, in his Historische Zeitschrift:' Every line proves how Russia set Prussia and Austria at each other's throats and, at the same time, drew them into the 1792 war against France, exploited, cheated and dominated both; but stupid Sybel notices nothing of this; instead searches in this whole filthy murk of cheating, treaty-breaking and infamy, in which they were all equally involved, for only one thing: proof that Austria was even more rascally than Prussia. Never have there been such blockheads. His wrath is not directed against Russia, no, solely against Austria, and he explains Russian policy, which is displayed here quite openly and clear as day, with childish motives, such as annoyance at Austrian double-dealing.
From Flerovsky's accountb it apparently emerges that Russian power is bound to collapse very shortly. Urquhart will, of course, say that the Russians had the book written in order to throw dust in the eyes of the world.
To Tussy my best thanks for the Prussian Minister of Public Worship, sent me as a VALENTINE.
Your
F. E.
290. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 17 February[29]
Dear Kugelmann,
Yesterday I was out in the fresh air again for the first time in a long period.
First to business: be so good as to send immediately a copy of Vogt* to Asher & Co., Unter den Linden 11, Berlin. I would prefer it if you were to obtain a confirmation of posting certificate when you send the book off, and send me same. You would also oblige me if you would let me know roughly when C. Hirsch wrote to you about Vogt
The pamphlet you sent me is one of the appeals currently being made by the privileged estates of the German-Russian-Baltic provinces to German sympathies. These canaille, who have always distinguished themselves with their zeal in the service of Russian diplomacy, army and police, and who, since the transfer of the provinces from Poland to Russia, have happily bartered their nationality for the legal right to exploit their peasantry, are now clamouring because they see their privileged position endangered. The old system of rank and estate, orthodox Lutheranism and bleeding the peasants — that is what they call German culture, to defend which Europe should now mobilise. Hence, too, the last words of this pamphlet— landed property as the basis of civilisation, and landed property, moreover, as the wretched pamphleteer himself admits, consisting mainly of directly manorial estates or tributary peasant estates.
In his quotations — in as far as they refer to Russian communal property — the fellow displays both his ignorance and CLOVEN FOOT. Schédo-Ferroti(1) is one of the fellows who (naturally IN THE INTERESTS OF LANDLORDISM) attribute the miserable situation of the Russian peasantry to the existence of communal property, just as, formerly, the abolition of serfdom in Western Europe, instead of the serfs' loss of their land, was decried as the cause of pauperism. The Russian book Land and Freedom is of the same calibre. The author is a Baltic country squire von Lilienfeldb The Russian peasantry is thrown into misery by the same thing that made the French peasantry miserable under Louis XIV, etc.— state taxation and the obrokc to the big landowners. Instead of producing the misery, communal property alone diminished it.
It is, further, a historical lie that this communal property was Mongolian As I have indicated at various points in my writings,[546]
it is of Indian origin, and may, therefore, be found among all European peoples at the beginning of their development. The specific Slav (not Mongolian) form of the same in Russia (which is also repeated amongst the non-Russian South Slavs) even re-semblés most, mutatis mutandis,(2) the Old German modification of Indian communal property.
The Pole Duchinski in Paris declared the Great Russian race to be Mongolian and not Slav, and attempted to prove this with a great expenditure of scholarship; and from the standpoint of a Pole, this is in order. Even so, it is wrong. Not the Russian peasantry, but only the Russian aristocracy, is strongly mixed with Mongol-Tartar elements. The Frenchman Henri Martin has taken over the theory from Duchinski, and the 'enthusiastic Gottfried Kinkel' translated Martin[547] and set himself up as a Polish enthusiast, in order to make the Democratic Party forget his servile homage to Bismarck.
On the other hand, the fact that the Russian state represents Mongolianism in its policy towards Europe and America is naturally a truth that has today become a platitude, and thus accessible even to people like Gottfried and Baltic country squires, philistines, clerics and professors. Despite everything, therefore, the Baltic-German cries of dismay must be exploited, since they place Prussia, the German great power, in a 'ticklish' position. Everything that arouses antipathy on our side towards these 'representatives of German culture' in Prussia's eyes is bound to make it appear worth protecting!
Another example of the crass ignorance of the pamphleteer: he sees the cession of Russian North America as no more than a diplomatic ruse by the Russian Government, which incidentally WAS VERY HARD PRESSED FOR COSTS.[548] But the main point is this: the American Congress recently published the documents about this transaction. They include, among other things, a report by the American envoy, in which he writes explicidy to Washington: the acquisition is at the moment not worth a cent economically,—but England is, thereby, cut off from the sea on one side by the Yankees, and the reversion of the whole of British North America to the UNITED STATES thus accelerated. There's the rub!
I approved of the substance of your correspondence with Jacoby, but I was absolument shocked by the exaggerated praise of my activities. Est modus in rebus!c If you must praise, Old Jacoby himself is worth praising. Which other OLD RADICAL in Europe has had the sincerity and courage to align himself so directly with the proletarian movement? It is quite unimportant that his transitional measures and detailed proposals are not worth much. Between
291. Marx to Engels. 19 February
ourselves — TAKE ALL IN ALL — I expect more for the social movement from Germany than from France.
I had a big row with Bakunin, that intriguer. But more about that in my next letter.
My best compliments à Madame la Comtesse" and Fränzchen.b
Your
K. M.
291
MARX TO ENGELS[180]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 19 February 1870
DEAR FRED,
Although it is still very inopportune to go out in the evenings in such weather, nevertheless I visited Gaudissart' yesterday evening. He had, you see, written to me that he had something very important to tell me, and could not really drag the files to me. And what was it? A giant letter about Russica, an impossible omnium-gatherum rambling on from one thing to another, with which he had honoured Zukunft?14 and which this had not printed; neither had he received an answer to his furious letter requesting 'an explanation' of such methods. Further: a letter from the publisherd of Hermann here, requesting him to write against Russia for his paper. It would thus appear that Bismarck is very cross about Katkov's attacks.
Finally, an article in Katkov's paper" in which he 1. makes" insinuations against Bakunin concerning various money matters; 2. describes him as his Siberian correspondent; 3. charges Bakunin with having written an extremely humble letter to Emperor Nicholas, from Siberia or shortly before being sent there — I don't remember exactly.[049] Gaudissart will send me a COPY of this, which I shall then communicate to you.
Gaudissart has business again, but not yet a new OFFICE in the CITY. He also has to get the BUSINESS going again.
This evening — although yesterday evening did me no good — I must go into town again. I have been SUMMONED to the SUBCOMMITTEE. It is, in fact, an important matter, since the people in Lyons have thrown Richard out of their society, though the GENERAL COUNCIL must make the decision. Richard, hitherto LEADER in Lyons, a very young man, is very active. Apart from his INFEODATION to Bakunin and a super-wisdom linked with this, I don't know what reproaches can be made against him. It appears that our last circular letter[11] caused quite a sensation and that a hunt for Bakuninists has started in both Switzerland and France. But est modus in rebus? and I shall see to it that there is no injustice.[550]
The best bit of Gladstone's speechc is the long introduction, where he states that even the 'BENEFICENT' laws of the English always have the opposite effect in practice. What better proof does the fellow want that England is not fit to be lawgiver and adminis-trator of Ireland!
His measures are a pretty piece of patchwork. The main thing in them is to lure the LAWYERS with the prospect of lawsuits, and the LANDLORDS with that of 'state aid'.
Odger's election scandal was doubly useful: the lousy Whigs have seen, for the first time, that they must let workers into Parliament, or Tories will get in. Second, the lesson for Mr Odger and consorts. Despite Waterlow,[551] he would have got in if part of the Irish workers had not abstained, because he had behaved so TRIMMING during the debate in the GENERAL COUNCIL, which they found out from Reynolds's.d
You'll receive the Irish Bill[544] next week.
Salut
Your
K. M.
Apropos. Mr Siebel or Sybel,c or whatever the fellow is called, appears to forget that the Prussians had already left the Austrians in the lurch, in order to participate in the second partitioning of Poland excluding them. The filthy behaviour of the Prussians on that occasion was already disclosed in a Polish publication of 1794, which I have read in German translation, and the very clumsy way in which Russia made the two great German powers into its TOOLS and FOOLS in the anti-Jacobin war is very well set out in a Polish pamphlet, written in French in 1848.a The names of the two authors quoted escape my memory, but they are in my notebooks.
292. Marx to Charles Dobson Collet. 19 February[562]
My dear Sir,
When I received your last letter, I was dangerously ill and, therefore, unable to answer.
The very minimum of the Russian Railway Loans amounts to 100 mill. £St. This sum has been mainly raised in Holland, Frankfort on the Main, London, Berlin, and Paris.
As appears from the Moscovite public journals, the Russian government intends raising, if possible, in the course of the next two years, no less than 50 mill. £St.
In regard to the last Railway Loan of 12 mill. ^St., its history comes to this:
As you will be aware, the Russian government had successively, but vainly tried to raise money, first by Thompson and Bonar, then by Baring. Being hardly pressed for money, it succeeded at last to get from Rothschild, acting through his agent Bleichrb'der at Berlin, a loan of something like two millions £St.
With a view to get further securities for the repayment of this loan, Rothschild undertook to bring out the last Railway Loan.[553] He stipulated
1) 4 per cent commission for himself — which, on 12 mill. £St., amounts to the nice round sum of 480,000 £St.;
2) another 5,000£ to be annually paid to him for 80 years for his trouble of paying out the coupons.
Rothschild proceeded very cautiously. He limited the English share of the loan to but 4 mill. £St., part of which he took up on his own account, while the rest was placed exclusively with confederate stockjobbers and City friends. Thus, when the loan was thrown on the open market, it was mere child's play to push it quickly to 4 per cent premium.
Still Rothschild's anticipations were quite surpassed. So floated was he with applications that he expressed his regret of not having at once issued a loan of 20 mill. £St.
The present financial distress of the Russian government may be inferred from the following facts:
About a year ago the Russian government issued a 'series' of paper money to be refunded after a certain term of years, and amounting to 15 mill, roubles. The official pretext of this new issue was that by this operation 15 mill, roubles of the old paper
assignats should be withdrawn from the market and replaced by a more solid sort of currency. But hardly had the 'series' been issued in the way of state payments, when the Petersburgh Official Gazette" declared in a short, dry note that, for the present, no paper assignats would be withdrawn.
During the few last months, the Russian government has again issued no less than 12 new 'series' of that new sort of paper money, amounting together to 36 mill, roubles.
The Russian Exchange on London is now 28-29d. per rouble, while the par of exchange would be 40d. per rouble.
One reason of this state of things is avowed by the Russian press itself, viz. that, consequent on several bad harvests in the North-Eastern provinces, and still more on revival of American competition, the Russian corn exports have fallen by Va-
Yours truly
Karl Marx
293. Marx to Engels. 21 February
294. Engels to Marx. 22 February
293
MARX TO ENGELS[554]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 21 February 1870
DEAR FRED,
Enclosed — Borkheim's extract from Katkov's article.[3] At the same time, you will see from Gaudissart's letter, on the reverse side, the shameless claims he makes on me as a result of a passing remark I made to him — on the evening I visited himb—about Flerovsky. How should I respond to this thirst for action?
Also enclosed — a letter from Imandt.[555] To me, the Prussian claim appears superannuated. What do you think? Doesn't it depend on the form of the counter-bill he drew up for the university professorsc?
I wrote to De Paepe today about the foul deeds of the English Government against the Fenian PRISONERS. This business absolutely must get into the Continental press.[356]
Salut.
Your
K. M.
294
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 22 February 1870
Dear Moor,
If Imandt had gone immediately to a SOLICITOR, just like the North German consul, he would most probably have learned that a debt contracted abroad is not recoverable by legal action in Scotland — or should Scotland be an exception to all other countries? On superannuation, the Code Civil states, Article 2262, that all plaints are superannuated after 30 years; Article 2265: who acquires something in good faith—superannuation in 10, respectively 20 years[557]; Article 2271: the plaint of masters and teachers of sciences and arts regarding instruction given monthly, superannuates in 6 months. Since this last article does not correspond to the case, the plaint has obviously been filed simply in order to interrupt the superannuation in Rhenish Prussia, or also to see if Imandt can be browbeaten by fear of showing himself up, and will thus pay. His counter-bills are possibly made out on word of honour, in which case he could be shown up badly, in his position. Under Article 2244 a court summons interrupts the superannuation.
Katkov's elucidations about Bakunin are not worth much.(1) He does not say to whom the repentant letters were supposedly sent. Borrowing money is such a normal Russian means of sustenance that no Russian should reproach another on the subject. And that Bakunin should have used the 6,000 roubles lent him in order to flee, instead of paying the otkupschtschik,b is really ludicrous. And that somebody banished to Siberia should once turn to Katkov, although otherwise he has no time for him — one can't make much of that either. It will annoy Bakunin, but I can't see that Gaudissartc will dig much capital out of it.
You can tell Gaudissart concerning his plan regarding Flerovsky that, if an English publisher is interested, he will find himself a translator who will translate AT THE MARKET RATE, which differs considerably from what Gaudissart calls 'paying well', and who will finish it in 2-3 months, and not take a whole year. Gaudissart should not think that he is the only person who knows Russian. There will still be time to return to the other points when he has really found a publisher. Incidentally, it won't hurt at all if Gaudissart makes enquiries amongst the London PUBLISHERS. If he should find somebody, which I hardly believe, this contact could be utilised at a later date. You can easily refuse the preface, saying it would be arrogant of you to wish to introduce a foreign book to English literature, before you yourself had been introduced to it by an English edition of your own book.[147]
Apropos, why don't you put Eccarius on to tackling the foul prison deeds in Volksstaat?
Sybel, of course, does mention the second partitioning of Poland behind Austria's back," but, at the same time, he tries to prove once again that Prussia was entitled to do this, on account of some sort of previous Austrian treachery. His entire reasoning is this: when Prussia allies itself with Russia against Austria, this is in order, but if Austria attempts to ally itself with Russia against Prussia, this is treachery. The Pan-Germans and Austrians — Arneth, Vivenot and consorts — claim the opposite; so the two schools of history-mutilators today behave just as stupidly with regard to Russia as the two German powers did then.
I still haven't got hold of the damned Irish laws.[481] I have discovered Giraldus Cambrensis(2); it can be had from Bohn, translated, for 5s. At the moment I'm going through Wakefield," who has a lot of good things on climate, soil, etc., with all sorts of omnium-gatherum in between. The fellow considers himself very learned, and is partial to quoting German, Dutch, Danish, etc., trash.
Yesterday I laughed more than I have for ages when I read Moses' Paris letter in Volksstaat about Flourens b and the other new 'forces' that are replacing and supplanting old Blanqui, etc. The old blockhead never changes. Wilhelmd ditto: his latest reports on 19 February are: Hanover, 13 January, Lörrach, 23 January, Munich, 25 January, Ernstthal, 17 January!
Incidentally, things are moving quickly in France. Jules Favre could do nothing better than to declare himself so vehemently against all violence, and in favour of peaceful progress, though limited.[558]
My move to London late in summer has now been decided. Lizzie has told me that she would like to leave Manchester, the sooner the better; she has had some rows with relations, and she is fed up with the whole business here. We shall get rid of our house in September, so everything must be arranged between July and September.
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
295. Marx to Peter Imandt. 23 February
Dear Imandt,
As far as I am aware, debts contracted abroad are not recoverable by legal action in Scotland. I expect any old SOLICITOR there would confirm this for you.
On superannuation the Code Civil states," Article 2262, that all plaints are superannuated after 30 years; Article 2265: who acquires something in good faith—superannuation in 10, respectively 20 years; Article 2271 : the plaint of masters and teachers of sciences and arts regarding instruction given monthly, superan-nuates in 6 months.
The whole officiousness of the Prussians is obviously simply an attempt to browbeat you, and you can just laugh in the fellows' faces. It would only be inconvenient if the counter-bills are made out on word of honour. This would not alter things legally, but would be compromising. But this is surely not the case?
As you perhaps know, Dronke went bankrupt in a big way, then disappeared. According to some he is again haunting Liverpool; according to others, however, he is knocking about in Paris or Spain. In any case, you can get the most certain and reliable news about him from Schily.
296. Marx to Engels. 5 March
That scamp Biscamp continues to send his inspirations to the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung and the Weser-Zeitung ditto, also, the Post,(1) published here by Juch since the New Year (Hermann has passed into Bismarckian handsb). I read nothing of all this, and still less do any personal relations exist. As far as I know, the Hesse Cassel man c is hanging out SOMEWHERE in the London area, and is once again 'husband'. Since you...d
296
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 5 March 1870
DEAR FRED,
Last week we received the news that the youngest Lafargue child has died.[559] The extraordinary coldness in Paris contributed to this. The child was STINTED FROM THE BEGINNING.
In the meantime, all sorts of things have happened in FENIAN AFFAIRS. A letter I wrote to the 'Internationale'in Brussels, censuring the FRENCH REPUBLICANS for their narrow-minded nationalist tendency, has been printed, and the editors have announced that they will publish their remarks this week.f You should know that, in the letter of the Central Council to the Genevans'—which was communicated to the Brussels people' and the main International centres in France — I propounded, in detail, the importance of the Irish question for the working-class movement in general (owing to its repercussions in England).
A short while later, Jennychen flew into a rage at that disgusting article in The Daily News, the private organ of Gladstone's ministry, in which this wretched rag addresses itself to its 'liberal' brothers in France, and warns them not to lump the CASES OF Rochefort and O'Donovan Rossa together. The Marseillaise really fell into the trap, saying The Daily News was right, and in addition published a wretched article by that prattler Talandier, exprocureur de la République, now a teacher of French at the military school in Woolwich (and also ex-private tutor at Herzen's, about whom he wrote a glowing obituary); in this article he attacks the Irish because of their Catholicism, and accuses them of causing Odger's defeat — because of his participation on the Garibaldi committee.[561]
Besides, he adds, they still support Mitchel although he has sided with the SLAVEHOLDERS, as though Odger did not continue to side with Gladstone, despite his much more important support for the
(2) SLAVEHOLDERS ! Jennychen—ira facit poetam*—therefore wrote, in addition to a private letter, an article for Marseillaise, which was printed?[62] And she received, from the rédacteur de la rédaction, a letter, a copy of which I enclose. Today she'll be sending another letter to the Marseillaise which, referring to Gladstone's reply (this week) to questions about the treatment of the PRISONERS, contains extracts from O'Donovan Rossa's letter (see The Irishman, Feb. 5, 70). According to Rossa's letter Gladstone is here presented to the French as a monster (insofar as Gladstone is, IN FACT, responsible for the entire treatment of the PRISONERS, under the Tories, too) and also as a ridiculous hypocrite, as author of the Prayers, The Propagation of the Gospel, The Functions of Laymen in the Church, and Ecce Homo.
With these two papers — the Internationale and Marseillaise—on the Continent we shall now unmask the English. If you should happen, ONE DAY OR THE OTHER, to find something suitable for one of these papers, you, too, should take part in our good work.
The state of my health has not permitted me to take part in the meetings of the CENTRAL COUNCIL [73] so far. But I shall, next Tuesday,b if it doesn't rain. The discussions in the American HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES about the FENIAN PRISONERS 56S have, as far as I could see, been most carefully suppressed by the English press.
Mr W. Liebknecht displays himself this time in his full glory. First, he is in a great hurry to have your Peasant War. Now procrastination and, instead, he.prints, in No. 17 of the Volksstaat, de datoc Hamburg, an article against the idea of 'class' differences, which comes from Heinzen's propaganda clique.
297. Marx to Laura and Paul Lafargue. 5 March
Quant à Meissner and the 18th Brumaire, il observe un silence significatif.[3]
Salut
Your
K. M.
297
MARX T O LAURA A N D PAUL LAFARGUE [5 6]
IN PARIS
London, 5 March 1870
Dear Laura and Paul,
You feel certainly great and just indignation at my prolonged silence, but you ought to excuse it as the natural consequence, first, of illness, then of extra work to make u p for the time lost.
The sad news Paul communicated to us, did not take me by surprise. b The evening before the arrival of his letter I had stated to the family my serious misgivings as to the little child. I have suffered myself too much from such losses to not profoundly sympathise with you. Still, from the same personal experience I know that all wise commonplaces and consolatory thrash uttered on such occasion irritate real grief instead of soothing it.
I hope you will send us good news of little Schnappy, c my greatest favourite. The poor dear little fellow must have suffered severely from the cold so adverse to 'la nature mélanienne'.dM0
Apropos. Un certain M. de Gobineau, has published, il y a à peu près dix ans," a work in 4 volumes Sur l'Inégalité des races humaines, written for the purpose to prove in the first instance that 'la race blanche' is a sort of God amongst the other human races and, of course, the noble families within the 'race blanche' are again la
a As for Meissner and the 18th Brumaire, he observes a significant silence. - b See this volume, p. 444. - c Charles Etienne Lafargue - d dark-skinned creature - e some ten years ago - f white race 4*v ^IvWL
Y * 1 ^ ^ * ^ w ~ v v . to A,
î , i*-^ «vr^-^cv. ^ tYiWJL'W V.tf»i** _1>M*M*« o-^jcd'VU
H*^~U | W ^ JU\&> , ^ ^ ^ V U'b^JWSç?
First page of Marx's letter to Laura and Paul Lafargue of 5 March 1870
crème de la crème? I rather suspect that M. de Gobineau, dans ce temps là 'premier secrétaire de la légation de France en Suisse',(1) to have sprung himself not from an ancient Frank warrior but from a modern French huissier.b However that may be, and despite his spite against the 'race noire'c—(to such people it is always a source of satisfaction to have somebody they think themselves entitled to
mépriser')—he declares 'le nègre' ou 'le sang noir'd to be la source matérielle de l'art,* and all artistic production of the white nations to depend on their mixture avec 'le sang noir'.
I have been much delighted by the last letter I received from my sweet ex-secretary ,e and much amused by Paul's description of Moilin's soirée.[564]
Ce 'grand inconnu'h seems at last to have found the secret of catching that 'gloire'^ which till now always slipped so treacherous-ly out of his fingers when he had just laid hold of its tail. He has found out that to be successful with the world everything depends upon the circumstance of circumscribing the world within one's own four walls, where one may nominate himself president and have such an audience as will swear in verba magistri}
Here, at home, as you are fully aware, the Fenians' sway is paramount. Tussy is one of their head centres.(2) Jenny writes on their behalf in the Marseillaise under the pseudonym of J. Williams.[062] I have not only treated the same theme in the Brussels Internationale? and caused resolutions of the Central Council[73] to be passed against their gaolers.[452] In a circular, addressed by the Council to our corresponding committees, I have explained the merits of the Irish Question."m
You understand at once that I am not only acted upon by feelings of humanity. There is something besides. To accelerate the social development in Europe, you must push on the catastrophe of official England. To do so, you must attack her in Ireland. That's her weakest point. Ireland lost, the British 'Empire' is gone, and the class war in England, till now somnolent and chronic, will assume acute forms. But England is the metropolis of landlordism and capitalism all over the world.
What is Blanqui about? Is he at Paris?
You have of course heard nothing of my translator, M. K.(3) I am in the same predicament.[441]
The book of Flerovski on 'the situation of the labouring classes in Russia',b is an extraordinary book. I am really glad to be now able to read it somewhat fluently with the aid of a dictionary. This is the first time that the whole economical state of Russia has been revealed. It is conscientious work. During 15 years, the author travelled from the West to the confines of Siberia, from the White Sea to the Caspian, with the only purpose of studying facts and exposing conventional lies. He harbours of course some delusions about la perfectibilité perfectible de la Nation Russe, et le principe providentiel de la propriété communale dans sa forme Russe.c But let that pass. After the study of his work, one feels deeply convinced that a most terrible social revolution — in such inferior forms of course as suit the present Muscovite state of development — is irrepressible in Russia and near at hand. This is good news. Russia and England are the two great pillars of the present European system. All the rest is of secondary importance, even la belle France et la savante Allemagne.d
Engels will leave Manchester and, at the beginning of August next, settle definitely down in London." It will be a great boon to me.
And now farewell my dear children. Don't forget to kiss brave little Schnappy on behalf of his
Old Nick
298. Engels to Marx. 7 March
298
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 7 March 1870
Dear Moor,
Your letter arrived here yesterday[3] in a very suspicious state and, what is even more suspicious, a full hour after time. Since, on Sunday, there is only one POST DELIVERY here, this looks very odd. Is the very honourable Mr Bruce taking an interest in our correspondence?
When I read on Saturday afternoon in the 'Irishman in Paris' the story about the Marseillaise, I knew immediately in which part of the world Mr Williams was to be found, but stupidly enough could not explain the Christian name.[566] The business is very fine, and the naïve letter, with Rochefort's naïve suggestion that O'Donovan Rossa should be asked to contribute to the Marseillaise, gives Jenny an excellent opportunity to establish a link with the treatment of the prisoners, and to open the eyes of the bons
hommes(1) over there.
Why don't you publish the General Council's letter to the Genevansb? The central sections in Geneva, Brussels, etc., read these things, but they do not penetrate to the masses unless they are published. And they should also be published in German in the papers in question. You don't publish anything like enough.
Please send me the relevant copies of Marseillaise and Internationale for a few days.d Jennychen's success has been greeted with a general hurrah here, and Mr J. Williams' health has been drunk with ALL DUE HONOURS. I am very eager to hear how the matter develops. The stupid correspondent of the 'Irishman in Paris'e
should try some time to get such things into his friend Ollivier's papers.
A couple of days ago my bookseller suddenly sent me the Senchus Mor, the ancient Irish laws,[481] and what's more, not the new edition but the first. So, with a lot of pushing, I have
299. Engels to Rudolf Engels. 8 March
succeeded in that And such difficulties with a book carrying Longmans as the London firm on its title page, and published by the government! I haven't been able to look at the stuff yet, since, in the meantime, I have started on various modern things (about the 19th century) and must finish them first.
I have concluded with Meissner on the basis of sharing the profits.[567]
I have just received a semi-incomprehensible telegram from Barmen, undated, from which it can only be seen that my mother is seriously ill. I don't know whether a letter is on its way, or whether an earlier telegram got lost.[368] I didn't get Liebknecht's sheet(1) today, either. It is very possible that I shall have to go to Germany in a few days, IF SO I shall see you on my way there. But I hope everything will still go well.
Your
F. E.
299
ENGELS TO RUDOLF ENGELS
IN BARMEN
Manchester, 8 March 1870
Dear Rudolf,
I received your telegram today a few minutes before 5, which means it took scarcely 3 hours, since it was dated 1.52 p.m. So far your news is good, and I hope it remains so.
Hermann's letter from Saturdayb I received only this morning; the storms must have delayed the Sunday boat from Ostend. In the regular run of things I should have received it yesterday afternoon, some hours before Hermann's telegram,c and then your information would have accorded properly. The matter seems to
300. Marx to Engels. 9 March
me extremely serious, and the worst is that it can drag on for a very long time and cause mother, at her age, a great deal of suffering, even if everything goes well this time. That the doctor is quite satisfied I understand to mean under the prevailing circumstances; a haemorrhage lasting from Wednesday until the following Tuesday appears to me to be certainly something serious. But we should hope for the best, namely that, when this is past, this does not re-occur.
I am ready to leave at any moment and, if my presence is desirable, I can, depending on the time at which I receive your telegram, either leave here at midday and arrive there the following evening, or leave late in the evening, per day-boat to Ostend, and get to Cologne the same day, where I would surely have to lie up for the night.
Try to keep mother as cheerful and in as good heart as possible. Best greetings.
Your
Frederick
300
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 9 March 1870
Dear FRED,
Enclosed — 2 copies of the Internationale. You don't need to return them, since they have sent me 5 COPIES OF EACH NUMBER.
In No. II there is nothing by me, except for translation of the FACTS from The Irishman.[569]
As TO No. I, I had written it quickly to De Paepe as a private letter for him to work up into an article. Instead, he published it verbatim," adding nonsensical clauses, e.g., that the BODILY punish-
301. Marx to Engels. 10 March
ment of O'Donovan should be understood as — lashes with a whip!
Have you read the stuff by Huxley about the lack of difference between ANGLO-SAXON (vulgo ENGLISHMEN) and CELT?[570] He is giving his 2nd lecture on the subject next Sunday. LITTLE Dakyns has sent us TICKETS for this.
We are much DISTURBED here about the silence of the Parisians(1)
since the notice of death.b Let's hope there has been no new misfortune.
Strohn was here the day before yesterday, and left for the Continent the same day.
Salut
Your
K. M.
301
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 Marchc 1870
DEAR FRED,
Since I know this stuff amuses you, the following with all haste (post just closing): in addition to a few introductory marginal notes on Gladstone's latest declaration in the House of Commons about the PRISONERS, Jennychen sent the Marseillaise an extract from an older letter by O'Donovan Rossa, published in The Irishman on 5 February (I believe that was the date). The Marseillaise (in a truly French way it gives this letter as from 'Newgate') proceeds to publish this in a special issue on Tuesday evening, containing only articles by 'prisonniers politiques' and costing 50 centimes.[571] This has now been reprinted (re-translation into English) this evening in The Echo, etc. Levy's Telegraph also refers to it in its Paris correspon-
302. Engels to Marx. 13 March
dence. The Irishman may well complain that it is not quoted as the source. But Jennychen will use this to demonstrate how the English press suppresses the FACTS published in the Irish press, and only publishes them as such when they come from Paris in some extraordinary manner. The English press will soon note that the idyllic days of systematic lying and hushing up the FACTS are over.
Pays remarks that the increase in the price of the Marseillaise to 50 c. is against all the rules, since 'prison goods are always sold cheaper than others'.
Salut
Your
K. M.
302
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 13 March 1870
Dear Moor,
MR J. Williams" has certainly had a bang-up and well-earned success. The dodge by the Marseillaise in printing the letter as an originalb has got the whole English press into a fine pickle, and has finally forced The Irishman to admit its debt to the Marseillaise and the Internationale. The hushing-up is at an end, and MR Bruce — although in the lousy Daily News he again has O'Donovan Ros-sa described as 'ORDINARY CONVICT AND NOTHING ELSE'—will probably sing quite a different tune in answering the interpellations that are to come. Bravo Jenny! Lizzie is particularly grateful to you for the articles in the Internationale,'' which pleased her enormously.
The two letters enclosed came to me from Solingen. I had
a Marx's daughter Jenny - b See the previous letter. - c K. Marx, The English Government and the Fenian Prisoners.
1870
addressed this M o l l a as ' t h o u ' , assuming h i m t o b e t h e b r o t h e r of J u p p , b a n d a n o l d m e m b e r of the L e a g u e 0 ; t h u s t h e i n t i m a t e t o n e . You will also n o t e t h a t w e have also fallen p r e y t o m y t h - formation . I k n o w n o t h i n g a b o u t e i t h e r t h e Schapper business, w h i c h looks very fuddled , o r t h e b u s i n e s s with m y o l d m a n . d M y old man w o u l d h a v e t a k e n c a r e n o t t o let m e p a y o u t w a g e s o r a n y t h i n g like t h a t ; f o r this, I c o u l d n o t count well e n o u g h f o r his taste. [5 7 2] Since I h a v e t o a n s w e r t h e fellows soon , y o u m i g h t let m e k n o w w h e t h e r y o u h a v e h e a r d a n y t h i n g c o n c e r n i n g M e n k e i n t h e m e a n t i m e .
T h e w h o l e w e e k I h a v e b e e n s t a n d i n g r e a d y t o h a v e t o g o a w a y b e c a u s e of m y m o t h e r , b u t luckily things a r e g e t t i n g better. [6]
T h e following p a s s a g e suffices t o c h a r a c t e r i s e g e n t l e o l d Gladstone ' s w h o l e l o n g LAND B I L L 5 4 4 as p u r e m u c k :
'THE LEASES IN QUESTION' (namely, as they are given today, now and then, in Ireland by the LANDLORDS to the TENANTS) ' ARE QUITE AS PRECARIOUS AS TENANCIES AT WILL. THEY HAVE NO EFFICACY WHATEVER IN REMOVING THE SENSE OF INSECURITY. A LEASE TO BE OF ANY AVAIL FOR THAT PURPOSE, SHOULD, SAVE IN THE PARTICULARS OF SUBDIVIDING AND SUBLETTING, BE FREE AND UNFETTERED — ABOVE ALL, IT SHOULD PUT IVO OBSTACLE TO THE SALE OF THE TENANT'S INTEREST. BUT MODERN LEASES ARE THE REVERSE OF THIS — THEY ARE ENCUMBERED WITH CLAUSES AND COVENANTS PRESCRIBING THE MODE OF CULTIVATION AND THE DISPOSAL OF THE PRODUCE, NEGATIVELY AND AFFIRMATIVELY REGULATING THE ACTION OF THE TENANT AND ENTIRELY FORBIDDING THE ESSENTIAL POWER OF FREE ALIENATION. EVERY LINE IN THESE DOCUMENTS MAY WITHOUT MUCH EXAGGERATION BE SAID TO CONTAIN A LEGAL PITFALL FOR THE UNWARY AND THERE ARE FEW, INDEED, IF ANY, WHO CAN ESCAPE THE EFFECT OF THE LAST CLAUSE WITH WHICH THEY WIND UP, MAKING VOID THE LEASE IN CASE OF THE BREACH OF ANY OF THE FOREGOING COVENANTS. SUCH LEASES AFFORD NO SECURITY. THEY ARE QUITE AS PRECARIOUS AND MORE DANGEROUS THAN TENANCIES AT WILL.'
A n d w h o says this? M R Gallwey, AGENT (11) OF THE Kenmare
ESTATE, AT THE K i l l a r n e y BOARD OF GUARDIANS, 4 N o v e m b e r , 1 8 6 9 . And t h e K e n m a r e ESTATE b e l o n g s t o MARQUIS OF Landsdowne , w h o s e g e n e r a l a g e n t for all h i s Irish ESTATES is the h o n o u r a b l e 'REALITY' Trenchl[1] O n e c o u l d n o t h o p e f o r a b e t t e r a u t h o r i t y . A n d t h e s e
LEASES a r e t h e c o n t r a c t s BY WHICH, AFTER THE PASSING OF THIS BILL, EVERY
IRISH TENANT IS TO BE HELD BOUND a c c o r d i n g t o t h e n o b l e G l a d s t o n e . H a v e y o u h a d n e w s f r o m t h e L a f a r g u e s ? Best greetings t o all of you .
Y o u r
F. E. First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen Printed according to the original F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 2923 Published in English for the first time a Friedrich Moll - b Joseph Moll - c the Communist League - d Frederick Engels' father — Friedrich Engels, Senior - e See this volume, pp. 452-53. - f an allusion to Trench's Realities of Irish Life; see this volume, p. 356.
303. Engels to Jenny Marx ( daughter). 17 March
303
ENGELS T O JENNY MARX (DAUGHTER)
IN LONDON
Manchester, 17 March 1870
Dear Jenny,
I congratulate you on your well-earned success.[573] That Mr Bruce had to stammer his apologies in yesterday's Daily News is priceless.[574] It will now be necessary to show u p the hollowness of these apologies, and that is not difficult. Here is some material, as I do not know whether you still have a copy of the Pollock and Knox Report* about THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN.
Bruce says:
'WITH REFERENCE TO THE COMPLAINT THAT HE WAS COMPELLED TO BATHE IN UNCLEAR BATHS, THE COMMISSIONERS, AFTER FULL INQUIRY INTO THE PRACTICE OF THE PRISON, SAY "IT WOULD BE IDLE TO DWELL UPON SUCH ABSURDITIES."'
What d o the Commissioners say? PAGE 23:
'AT BATHING HOURS, HE STOOD NO. 1 OF A PARTY OF 30, HE WAS NOT CALLED FIRST
TO THE BATH. I T TURNED OUT THAT THE WARDER IN CHARGE ON ONE OCCASION BEGAN WITH N O . 1, NEXT WEEK WITH N o . 3 0 ; THE [3] R D WEEK HE TOOK N o . [1] [6] AND [1] [7] FIRST
AND WORKED ROUND TO THE FLANKS SO AS TO GIVE EACH HIS PRIORITY, WITHOUT WHICH THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN UNIVERSAL DISCONTENT. IT WOULD BE IDLE TO DWELL ON SUCH ABSURDITIES' b
THUS,THE ABSURDITY does not consist in fact that it is stated that Rossac had to bathe in the dirty water of criminals. No, but in the fact that he complains about it. Bruce changes the fact (admitted by the COMMISSIONERS) in such a way as if they had treated it 'as an absurdity'. That's the way Bruce treats the truth.
O n the fact itself, the CONVICT of Clonmel explains (THINGS NOT
GENERALLY KNOWN, p . 9 ) .
'IT IS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN THAT WE HAD T O BATHE IN THE SAME WATER IN WHICH SEVERAL OF THESE CRIMINALS BATHED OR WERE BATHING AT THE TIME.'
I might further remark that PENAL SERVITUDE is similar to the French travaux forcés or the so-called galères, and a CONVICT PRISON of this sort = the French bagne, and CONVICT = galérien. The enclosed clipping is a LEADER from the local John Blight's paper. d T h e Manchester Guardian also has a leader on the subject,
a This refers to [A. A. Knox and G. D. Pollock,] Report of the Commissioners on the Treatment of the Treason-Felony Convicts in the English Convict Prisons. - b italics by Engels - c O'Donovan Rossa - d Manchester Daily Examiner and Times, leader, 17 March 1870
304. Marx to Engels. 19 March
aping that of yesterday's Times,[3] but also with the comment that political prisoners have a claim to some CONSIDERATION.
Nota Bene: if you do not have the above report or the THINGS etc., I can send them to you immediately.
You should see the pleasure which this whole thing gave my wife. She is infinitely grateful to you for bringing all these infamies to light, and sends you the enclosed twig of SHAMROCK, for today is St Patrick's day and we don't know if you have any there.[076] T h e r e is also a SHAMROCK for Tussy.
Give my affectionate greetings to Moor, your Mama, Tussy and Ellen.
Your
F. Engels
304
MARX T O ENGELS [5 7 7]
IN MANCHESTER
London, 19 MARCH 1870
DEAR FRED,
Enclosed, the Marseillaise, which should, however, be returned with the previous ones. I haven't read it myself yet. The article was written jointly by Jennychen and myself,[562] as she hadn't got SUFFICIENT TIME available. This is also why she hasn't answered your letter, and why she is sending MRS Lizzie h e r thanks for the SHAMROCK ",7I> PROVISIONALLY through me.
From the enclosed letter from Pigott to Jenny you will see that MRS O'Donovan, to whom Jenny sent a private letter, together with 1 Marseillaise,b took her for a GENTLEMAN, although she signed it Jenny Marx. I answered Pigott today on Jennychen's behalf, and took the opportunity to explain to him briefly MY VIEWS OF THE IRISH
QUESTION.378
a 'The Fenian Convict O'Donovan Rossa', The Times, 16 March 1870. - b Apparently carrying the second article by Jenny Marx from the Irish question series.
19 1870
Your HINT about Bruce's falsificationa has already been used in the letter Jenny sent yesterday to the Marseillaise .b We have Knox'
et Pollock's Report c (but did not consult it) and ditto 'THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN'. O n the other hand, you would oblige me if you would send by return: 1. Lassalle's publication against Schulze-Delitzsch, and 2. the book by 'Clement', the crazy Frisian.d
T h e sensation caused in Paris and London by Jennychen's second letter (containing the CONDENSED TRANSLATION of O'Donovan's LETTER) has robbed Talandier of his sleep; he is loathsome and importunate (but very FLUENT with gob and pen). In the Marseillaise he had denounced the Irish as CATHOLIC IDIOTS. Now, equally FULLMOUTHED, he is taking their side in a review of what The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily News have said about O'Donovan's letter.[579] Since Jennychen's second letter was left unsigned (BY ACCIDENT), he obviously flattered himself with the idea that he would be taken for the secret sender. This was frustrated by Jennychen's third letter. T h e fellow is, du reste, TEACHER OF FRENCH AT THE
MILITARY SCHOOL OF Sandhurst.
Last Tuesday" I was back again, for the first time, at a meeting of the GENERAL COUNCIL.580 With me — Felix Holt, THE RASCAL.' H e had a very good time since, for a change, there was really something interesting going on. As you know, the prolétaires 'positivistes' in Paris had sent a deputy [8] to the Basle Congress. T h e r e was a discussion as to whether he should be admitted, since he represented a philosophical society and not a workers' society (although he and his consorts all belong 'personally' to the WORKING GLASS). Finally, he was admitted as a delegate of personal MEMBERS of the 'Internationale'. These fellows have now constituted themselves in Paris as a branche of the Internationale—an event about which the London and Paris Comtists have made a great FUSS. They thought that they had driven in THE THIN WEDGE. T h e GENERAL COUNCIL, being informed by the 'prolétaires positivistes' of their affiliation, reminded them politely that the COUNCIL could only permit their admission after examining their programme. So they sent a programme — real Comtist-orthodox — which was discussed last Tuesday. In the chair was Mottershead, h a very intelligent (though anti-Irish) old Chartist,
a See this volume, p. 455 - b The fourth article by Jenny Marx from the Irish question series. - c [A. A. Knox and G. D. Pollock,] Report of the Commissioners on the Treatment of the Treason-Felony Convicts in the English Convict Prisons. - d F. Lassalle, Herr Bastiat-Schultze von Delitzsch, der ökonomische Julian, oder: Capital und Arbeit; K. J. Clement, Schleswig, das urheimische Land des nicht dänischen Volks der Angeln und Frisen und Englands Mutterland, wie es war und ward. - e 15 March - f Dakyns (see this volume, p. 423.). - R Gabriel Mollin - h See this volume, p. 386.
305. Engels to Marx. 21 March
and a personal enemy of, and expert on, Comtism.[581] After a longish debate: Since they are workers they may be admitted as a simple branch. Not, however, as 'branchepositiviste', since the principles of Comtism directly contradict our Rules. And anyway, it was their own affair how they reconciled their philosophical private views with those of our Rules.
About the screeds from Solingen soon.
Salut
Your
Moro
305
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 21 March 1870
Dear Moor,
Your letter of the day before yesterday[3] was only delivered to me today, and the state of the envelope (enclosed) leaves no further doubt that the scoundrel Bruce is keeping an eye on our correspondence. I am, therefore, not sending these lines by post and, at the same time, a few lines, in which Pigott's letter(1) is returned, are going off to you by post.[582]
Close your envelopes carefully, and seal them with sealing-wax over the glue so that the signet-print touches all four flaps of the envelope. Your present envelopes are not suitable; the 4 flaps have to come quite close together so that this can be done. This makes things more difficult, so that, in the short time the fellows have they are forced to leave visible evidence, and then one can denounce them publicly. In the meantime, write important things to me under the address: Schorlemmer, Owens College, Manchester, or 172 Brunswick Street, Manchester, or S. Moore, 25 Dover Street, Oxford Street, Manchester, and don't write the address yourself. For very secret things, the best way is some sort of packet per Globe Parcel Co. like this one. In this way you could also let me have another address; it must not be that of your house. It's a good thing that I am soon moving to London, then this will come to an end. I have just given notice on my house. In fact, the beastly government could wish for no better medium than our correspondence in order to keep informed of the activities of the entire proletarian party; the government will also find things in our correspondence that they can utilise with their continental colleagues. At least because of this we must take all precautions. We must not correspond for Stieber's sake.
Jenny can shout: victoire sur toute la ligne!(2) If it were not for her, the honourable Gladstone would never have granted the new
enquête^ How Mooreb allowed himself to be diddled again by Gladstone concerning this enquiry can be shown by comparing the hopeful NOTE on p. 608 of The Irishman, which obviously proceeds from Moore, with Gladstone's Thursday speech, in which he reserved for himself the composition, procedures, etc.[583]
An attempt was also made, probably in Cologne, to open the letter from Solingend to me, but it was unsuccessful, owing to proper use of sealing-wax.
Hearty greetings.
Your
F. E.
In their haste, the fellows laid together the four flaps of the envelope incorrectly, the proof is therefore absolute.
306. Marx to Engels. 24 March
306
MARX T O ENGELS [1 7 4]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 24 MARCH 1870
DEAR FRED,
Enclosed, 2 copies of Marseillaise (1 J. Williamsa in it), and Het Volk, more about which in the course of this letter.
The fellows here should look out with their letter-opening. T h e times of the worthy Graham are past.[584] As soon as I have any completely striking, certain proof, I shall write directly to the POSTMASTER GENERAL. / / ne faut pas se gênera
I thought I was properly back on my feet, was working away gaily again for the past 2 weeks, but then there appeared, d'abord,c
a lousy cough from the March east wind — I'm still suffering from it — and then, since the day before yesterday, once again unpleasant manifestations on my right thigh, which for two days now have made walking and the seated position difficult. À tous les diables![4]
Enclosed, a letter from the Russian colony in Geneva. We have admitted them; I have accepted their commission to be their representative on the General Council, and have also sent them a short reply (official, apart from lettre privée) with permission to publish it in their paper. e 5 4 1 Drôle de position{ for me to be functioning as the representative of jeune Russiegl A man never knows what he may achieve, or what STRANGE FELLOWSHIP he may have to suffer. In the official reply I praise Flerovsky h and emphasise that the chief job of the Russian branche is to work for Poland (i.e., to free Europe from Russia as a neighbour). I thought it safer to say no word about Bakunin, either in the public or the confidential letter. But what I shall never forgive these fellows is that they turn me into a vénérable. They obviously believe I am between 80 and 100 years old.
The letter from the publisher of Volk[1] enclosed herewith — was addressed to me without a particular address on the envelope, but instead: 'Her Karl Marx, Algemeen Correspondent voor Nederland der
a Jenny Marx's fourth article on the Irish question - b One should not constrain oneself. - c first - d The devil take it! - e Hapodnoe d&jio - f Odd position - s young Russia - h The reference is to H. Ct>AepoBcKiH, Tlojioxeme paôonaio KJiacca et Pocciu. - ' Het Volk.
24 1870
Internationale Arbeiders Vereeniging, London.'[3] This post of an 'Algemeen Correspondent voor Nederland' was completely unknown to m e hitherto. But before I get mixed u p in any way with 'Herr Philipp von Roesgen von Floss', I thought it safer to write
d'abord to our Flemish branche in Antwerp to request information about this long name. b
Best greetings to MRS LIZZY.
Your
Moor
Apropos. OLD Becker C has finally written to J u n g (also a few lines to me,[585] which I shall answer tomorrow). H e presents all the stupidities he committed as deep and intentional machiavellianism. Le bon homme!d Thereby, the interesting datum that Bakunin, who hitherto, as Becker states, shouted blue murder about Herzen, began to sing hymns of praise as soon as he was dead.D86 Thereby he achieved his aim, that the propaganda money, ABOUT 25,000 frs annually, which the rich Herzen had paid to himself from Russia (his party there), is now transferred to Bakunin. Bakunin appears to love this type of 'inheritance',[087] despite his antipathy contre l'héritage.e379
T h e Napoleon RACE has fallen pretty low when they, à tort et à travers,f attempt to prove that they are being treated to boxed ears.5SB
a Mr Karl Marx, general correspondent of the International Working Men's Association for the Netherlands, London. - b See this volume, pp. 464-65. -c Johann Philipp Becker - d The good fellow! - e against inheritance --f so impru-dently
307. Marx to Wilhelm Bracke. 24 March[589]
IN BRUNSWICK
[London, 24 March 1870] Dear Friend,
Yesterday[3] I send you 3,000 CARDS OF MEMBERSHIP addressed to von Bonhorst[590]
I have information for you, which is not uninteresting, about the internal affairs of the Internationals. This will reach you by an indirect route.(1) In accordance with the Rules, all national committees in contact with the General Council must send it three-monthly reports on the situation of the movement. When I remind you of this, I would ask you to consider that this report is not written for the public, and should, therefore, present the facts completely factually, without make-up.
From Borkheim and from the latest letter from Bonhorst I know that the finances of the Eisenachers are in a bad state.[591] As a consolation, the information that the finances of the General Council are below zero, steadily growing negative dimensions.
308. Marx to Philippe Coenen. 24 March[5 9 2]
Haverstock Hill, London Citizen,
Yesterday I received the proeflladc of Het Volk published at Rotterdam and a letter from its editor, Philipp von Roesgen von Floss,d in which he asks, among other things, for a card as a
309. Marx to Engels. 26 March
member of the International. I know neither Mr Philipp von Roesgen von Floss nor the state of our affairs at Rotterdam. I suppose that you are better informed, and I am asking you to please write to me on these two points: (1) What is the state of affairs of the International at Rotterdam? (2) Can the General Council establish relations with Mr Philipp von Roesgen von Floss?
Greetings and fraternity.
Karl Marx
309
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 26 MARCH 1870
DEAR FRED,
Returned, enclosed, the letter from the 'wrong' Moll.a I have heard nothing from Menke yet. When you write to the lads, please tell them, also, 1. that Lessner has written repeatedly to them that the Central Council* can do nothing on this matter; 2. that they can work it out on their own 5 fingers that their cooperative society is of absolutely no interest to the English; and 3. that the Central Council is bombarded from all parts of Europe with demands for money, without receiving financial contributions from anybody on the continent.
I don't understand your lines of this morning. This is probably due to the fact that my head, as a result of physical infirmity, is not at its most lucid.
I would appreciate it if you could send me, tomorrow evening (if there is a post on Sunday, which is not the case here), £5 as an advance on the coming quarter. My wife informed me too late, i.e. at a moment of EXHAUSTED EXCHEQUER, that the gas bill has to be paid at 2 o'clock on Monday.
I think I left behind in Manchester [3 5 3] the number of the Queen's Messenger containing the biography of Clanricarde. Since this brute is putting on great airs in connection with the Irish COERCION BILL,[593] it is high time for J. Williams" to introduce to the French a counterpart for Pierre Bonaparte. [5 6 2]
Have you ever seen such filthy weather as this winter and autumn? No wonder that one can't get back on one's feet.
Salut
Your
K. M.
310. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 26 March[2 9]
Dear Kugelmann,
I am only writing you a few lines today, since a Frenchman has arrived, just at the moment when I was getting ready to correspond again with you after such a long period. I shall not get rid of the fellow this afternoon, and the post goes at 5.30.
Tomorrow, however, is Sunday, when a good Christian like myself is allowed to interrupt his work and write to you at greater length, particularly about the Russian casus, which has taken a pretty turn.
Jennychen, OUR ILLUSTRIOUS J. Williams,[562] has quite a good edition of Father Goethe.[594] BY THE BYE, she was recently invited to Madame Vivanti's, the wife of a rich Italian merchant. There was a great assemblée, including a number of English people. Jennychen had a furibundusb success with a Shakespeare declamation. Je te prie de saluer Madame la comtesse" de ma part et de la remercier
a Marx's daughter Jenny - b furious - c Kugelmann's wife Gertrud
311. Engels to Marx. 27 March
des lignes aimables qu'elle a bien voulues m'adresser. Elle n'a pas la moindre raison de regretter d'avoir préféré le latin au française Cela ne révèle pas seulement un goût classique et hautement développé, mais explique encore pourquoi Madame ne se trouve jamais au bout de son latin?
And best greetings to Fränzchen.
T h e
Moor
311
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 27 March b 1870
Dear Moor,
If you did not understand my few lines of the day before yesterday, then the enclosure must have been missing. You wrote on the 24th that you would take steps as soon as you had in your hands completely striking certain proof that our letters had been opened. The envelope of this letter was the most striking proof: the sealing-wax had been loosened with a hot iron and afterwards spread just as sloppily back on the envelope, so that every trace of the imprint was blotted out, and the unfastened flaps were not even properly covered again. So I immediately sent you this envelope, wishing thus to put you in a position to take immediate steps. If it was not enclosed, it had been taken out. But if it was in the same state in which you dispatched it, then you obviously need not put any sealing-wax on the letters, and might just as well send them completely open. Since this case interests me, please tell me how things stand.
a I would ask you to greet Madame la comtesse from me, and thank her for the friendly lines she wrote me. She has not the slightest reason to regret preferring Latin to French. This not only displays a classical and highly-developed taste, but also explains why Madame is never non-plussed. - b In the original: 29 March.
27 1870
Luckily, I have money at home, and I send you enclosed £5, S/7, 29,808, Manchester, 16 January 1869, BANK OF ENGLAND NOTE. Unfortunately, because of Sunday I cannot register the letter; the rogues who open our letters are equally capable of stealing the money. I wanted to get the rest yesterday, but the bank closes so early on Saturday that I wouldn't have got into town in time. I'll get it tomorrow.
I don't remember seeing the Queen's Messenger with Clanricarde's biography." As far as I know, I sent back to you all the Queen's Messengers, etc., which you did not take with you personally, in the parcel with the Cloches and Lanternes; but I'll take another look.
Mr Philipp von Roesgen von Floss has also spread himself in the Werker several times; the really Dutch, precise handwriting suggests a come-down notary's clerk. Caution is suggested before he be granted the personeel diploma as lidb of the Internationale
If your friend Collet only knew that you also have now become a bona fide and frank RUSSIAN AGENT.01 But it's really quite nice of the fellows, who certainly seem to be a different sort of Russians from those we have previously encountered. They can be left with their project of playing patron to the other Slavs until a firm footing has been gained in Austria and Hungary, and then this will cease of itself. They also have a good picture of the Servian Omladina; it is a sort of student society with tendencies about as clear as those of the old Burschenschaft.596
The explanation about Bakunin very good. Thus he is also rendered harmless, since the Russian paymasters will not permit him to go further than Herzen.
You must be having worse weather than us; here it's fairly cold, and the wind veers between northwest and east, but otherwise it's mostly fine, and I can take a decent walk every day. But 8 days ago, when it was once warm, I got a frightful grippe, which I drove out with 3 days of linseed tea.
I shall send you back the Dutch and Russian letters with the second post, so you'll get them tomorrow afternoon.
I have been looking through our correspondence of last year, and have discovered that roughly from July-August onwards your letters first individually, and later all without exception, show
312. Engels to Marx. 28 March
more or less clear signs of MANIPULATION. The one I received this morning was, if it had been opened, at least decently closed. Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
312
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 28 March 1870
Dear Moor,
Yesterday I sent you, in a letter that was not registerable because it was Sunday, a £ 5 NOTE, S/7, 29,808, Manchester, 16 January 1869, which I hope you received together with the letter. Enclosed now follow £82.10 — DRAFT ON DEMAND ON UNION BANK OF LONDON, DRAWN BY MANCHESTER AND COUNTY BANK TO ORDER OF F. ENGELS AND ENDORSED TO YOU, and, further, the various Dutch and Russian letters. The Roesgen h e r e a claims that he is certainly not a relative of the Rotterdam one. b T h e latter is quite something in his confusion— the divine right of the king and the people — the protest against hedendaagschec Communism, the defence of constitutional monarchy against the republic (though in this there is in Holland an atom of historical idea) and, finally, protective tariffs. In such a case one may well be called Philipp von Roesgen von Floss. A n d it is also rather cool that he accuses the bourgeoisie that they first want hunne eigene beurs vullend and then het door her uitgezogen land aan den daarop vlammenden Pruis verkoopen.* This should be sent to Bismarck.
Your
F. E.
313. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 28 March[5 9 7]
Dear Kugelmann,
Since an abscess on my right thigh makes sitting for any time impossible, I send you, enclosed, a letter for the Brunswick Comité, Bracke and Co., instead of writing twice. It would be best if you delivered it personally, after reading it through, and reminded them again that this information is confidential, not intended for the public.b
a sell the land they have sucked dry to Prussia, which ardently desires it. - b Marx enclosed Confidential Communication written by him.
314. Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt. 9 April[1 7 4]
Dear Meyer and dear Vogt,
So here you have me in all postures, one time together with my eldest daughter Jenny. Kugelmann had all these things printed from earlier photograms. a Je ne suis pas l'auteur responsable de ces folies.b
First of all, with regard to my long letter-debt to you, you will see from the enclosed note from Eccarius that the General Council has passiert^ a votum OF CONDOLENCE[598] because of the state of my health. (You see, I am practising Pennsylvanian German.) In fact, because of repeated relapses, I have only been able to attend the meetings of the General Council twice since the beginning of December, so, for all important discussions, the SUBCOMMITTEE came to my place. Under these circumstances (and I am still not completely restored), my free moments have literally been so absorbed by work that my correspondence has been limited to the completely unavoidable.
First, ad vocemd Sorge: he has written two letters to Eccarius as General Secretary. Eccarius informed the General Council of this. The latter instructed Eccarius to deliver the letters to me for answering, as I was Secretary for the German branches in the UNITED STATES. I tarried intentionally, as I knew that Meyer was on a trip to the West Indies, and could not find Vogt's private address.
I do not know Sorge's private letters to Eccarius. They probably deal simply with the money question, payment to Eccarius for his contributions to the Arbeiter-Union. Eccarius regards his position as General Secretary too much as a means of making money, and in a way that compromises us Germans in the eyes of the French and English. See, for instance, the enclosed note to me from Lessner. [3]" This is also the reason that I shall not communicate Meyer's letter to Eccarius,[600] since it conveys the information, irresistible to Eccarius, that Sorge has 'pecuniary resources'.
a See this volume, p. 213 - b I am not the author responsible for these follies. - *- An unidiomatic use of the German verb passieren (to happen, take place, pass by), on which Marx comments in the parenthesis. - d regarding With regard to Sorge's two official letters, they are written in the name of the General German Workers' Association 'LABOR UNION' No. 5, and signed Corresponding Secretary.
One letter contains orders for the reports of the General Council, and various other commonplace stuff.
The other letter contains nothing essential except for the notification that the association has joined the 'International'.
I shall write a few lines to Mr Sorge today, sending him the 15 COPIES of the latest report he requests."
A certain Robert William Hume (Astoria, Long Island, New York) sent us a detailed letter some time ago, on the occasion of the decisions of the General Council concerning the Irish amnestyb— a letter better than anything we had so far received from English-American circles. On my recommendation, he was named American-English correspondent, and has accepted this. I would, therefore, request you to get into contact with this man, and for this purpose I enclose a few lines addressed to him.
From the enclosed cutting from the Marseillaise of 2 April, you will see that F. Carl and F. Jubitz — persons unknown to us here — have sent an address to Paris in the name of the German workers.601 I would like to know whether these people belong to you. What was regarded as dubious here — on the General Council — was the fact that the International was not mentioned at all, but rather treated as non-existent.
General Cluseret has offered himself from New York to the General Council as French correspondent. Whether he was accepted I cannot say, believe I have heard so, however. He is a flighty, superficial, officious, boastful fellow. For instance, in one of his latest letters to the Marseillaise' he presents himself as a recognised representative of the workers of New York. But the man is of a certain importance for us just because of his links with the Marseillaise. In case you should wish to get to know this 'hero', even if only to sound him out, I enclose for you a CREDENTIAL, which might also be OF USE elsewhere.
The money Meyer sent to Stepney has been delivered to the General Council. Stepney is a very pedantic, but honest Englishman. He sent me the letter from Meyer with enclosures, so I had to send the stuff back to the General Council.
The day after tomorrow (11 April) I shall send you what International things I have at hand. (It is too late for the mail today.) I shall, ditto, send more of the 'Basle'.(1)
Amongst the stuff sent, you will also find a few copies of the RESOLUTIONS of the General Council of 30 November on the Irish amnesty, which you already know, and which I initiatedb; ditto an Irish pamphlet on the treatment of FENIAN CONVICTS.c
I had intended to submit further RESOLUTIONS on the necessary transformation of the present Union[461] (i.e., enslavement of Ireland) IN A FREE AND EQUAL FEDERATION WITH GREAT BRITAIN. Further progress on this matter has been temporarily suspended AS FAR AS PUBLIC RESOLUTIONS GO because of my enforced absence from the General Council. No other member of it has enough knowledge of Irish affairs or sufficient prestige with the English members of the General Council to be able to replace me on this matter.
Time has not passed uselessly, however, and I would ask you to pay particular attention to the following:
After studying the Irish question for years I have come to the conclusion that the decisive blow against the ruling classes in England (and this is decisive for the workers' movement ALL OVER THE WORLD) cannot be struck in England, but only in Ireland.
On 1 January 1870 d the General Council issued a secret circular, written by me in Frenche—{for repercussions in England, only the French papers are important, not the German} —on the relationship of the Irish national struggle to the emancipation of the working class, and thus on the attitude the International Association must take towards the Irish question.
Here I give you, quite shortly, the salient points. Ireland is the BULWARK of the English landed aristocracy. The exploitation of this country is not simply one of the main sources of their material wealth; it is their greatest moral power. They represent, IN FACT, the domination of England over Ireland. Ireland is, thus, the grand moyenf
by which the English aristocracy maintains its domination in England itself.
9 1870
O n the other hand: if the English army and police were withdrawn from Ireland tomorrow, you would immediately have
AN AGRARIAN REVOLUTION IN IRELAND. But the overthrow of the English aristocracy in Ireland would entail, and would lead immediately to, its overthrow in England. This would bring about the prerequisites for the proletarian revolution in England. In Ireland, the land question has, so far, been the exclusive form of the social question; it is a question of existence, a question of life or death for the immense majority of the Irish people; at the same time, it is inseparable from the national question: because of this, destruction of the English landed aristocracy is an infinitely easier operation in Ireland than in England itself — quite apart from the more passionate and more revolutionary character of the Irish than the English.
As for the English bourgeoisie, it has, d'abord,[11] a common interest with the English aristocracy in turning Ireland into simple pastureland to provide meat and wool at the cheapest possible price FOR THE ENGLISH MARKET. It has the same interest in reducing the Irish population to such a low level, through EVICTION and forced emigration, that English capital (leasehold capital) can function with 'SECURITY' in that country. It has the same interest IN CLEARING
THE ESTATE OF IRELAND as it had IN THE CLEARING OF THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS
OF ENGLAND and SCOTLAND. T h e £"6,000-10,000 ABSENTEE and other Irish revenues that at present flow annually to London must also be taken into account.
But the English bourgeoisie also has much more important interests in the present Irish economy. As a result of the steadily-increasing concentration of leaseholding, Ireland is steadily supplying its SURPLUS for the English LABOUR MARKET, and thus forcing down the WAGES and material and moral position of the
ENGLISH WORKING CLASS.
And most important of all! All industrial and commercial centres in England now have a working class divided into two hostile camps, English PROLETARIANS and Irish PROLETARIANS. T h e ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who forces down the STANDARD OF LIFE. In relation to the Irish worker, he feels himself to be a member of the ruling nation and, therefore, makes himself a tool of his aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. H e harbours religious, social and national prejudices against him. His attitude towards him is roughly that of the POOR WHITES to the 9
NIGGERS3 in the former slave states of the American Union. T h e Irishman PAYS HIM BACK WITH INTEREST IN HIS OWN MONEY. H e sees in the English worker both the accomplice and the stupid tool of English rule in Ireland. This antagonism is kept artificially alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short by all the means at the disposal of the ruling class. This antagonism is the secret of the English working class's impotence, despite its organisation. It is the secret of the maintenance of power by the capitalist class. And the latter is fully aware of this.
But the evil does not end here. It rolls across the ocean. T h e antagonism between English and Irish is the secret basis of the conflict between the UNITED STATES and England. It renders any serious and honest cooperation impossible between the working classes of the two countries. It enables the governments of the two countries, whenever they think fit, to blunt the edge of social conflict by MUTUAL BULLYING and, IN CASE OF NEED, by war between the two countries.
England, as the metropolis of capital, as the power that has hitherto ruled the world market, is for the present the most important country for the workers' revolution and, in addition, the only country where the material conditions for this revolution have developed to a certain state of maturity. Thus, to hasten the social revolution in England is the most important object of the International Working Men's Association. T h e sole means of doing so is to make Ireland independent. It is, therefore, the task of the 'INTERNATIONAL' to bring the conflict between England and Ireland to the forefront everywhere, and to side with Ireland publicly everywhere. T h e special task of the Central Council n in London is to awaken the consciousness of the English working class that, for them, the national emancipation of Ireland is not a QUESTION OF ABSTRACT 9 1870
published some stupid nonsense about Ireland, written here by the wretched Tallandier b)—for saving, in their national egoism, all their colèresc for the Empire.
This worked. My daughter Jenny wrote a series of articles for the Marseillaise u n d e r the name J. Williams (she signed herself Jenny Williams in her private letter to the editors), and published, among other things, O'Donovan Rossa's letter. HENCE IMMENSE NOISE. After many years of cynical refusal, Gladstone was thereby finally compelled to authorise a parliamentary enquête' into the treatment of the FENIAN PRISONERS. She is now REGULAR CORRESPONDENT ON IRISH AFFAIRS for the Marseillaise. (This is naturally a secret between us.) T h e British Government and press are furious that the Irish question has thus been placed on the ordre du jourd in France, and that these blackguards will now be watched and exposed all over continent, via Paris.
A second bird was hit by the same stone. We have, thereby, forced the Irish leaders, journalists, etc. in Dublin to establish contact with us, something the General Council had hitherto failed to achieve!
You have a wide field in America for work along the same lines. A coalition of the German workers with the Irish workers (naturally, also, with the English and American workers who wish to join in) is the greatest thing you could undertake now. This must be done in the name of the 'International'. T h e social significance of the Irish question must be made clear.
Next time, several special things about the position of the English workers.
Salut et fraternité!
Karl Marx
1935
315. Engels to Marx. 13 April
315
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 13 April 1870
Dear Moor,
Best thanks for the parlamentaires." Some of them anticipated my wishes; others were new to me and very handy. I am sending you several numbers of Zukunft to give you an opportunity to admire the infinitely foul methods used by the National Liberals in the debate on political crimes (Criminal Code). This excels everything. The cowardly rogues believe they have performed such a deed of heroism with the abolition of the death sentence for common crimes — and that, too, only on paper — that political offenders may now be calmly imprisoned in convict jails and treated as COMMON CONVICTS.[602] For political crimes, powder and lead will continue to exist, through the agency of martial law.
Enclosed — a jolly letter from Wilhelm, which I request returned for the sake of answering. You will see that the fellow acts as though J were copying from him. He has not yet firmly established his Leipzig sheet,(1) and already wants to start a daily in Berlin.[603] The fellow always sees the heavens filled with melodious violins,c but the strings are missing and the sounding-board is smashed.
After various interruptions I am finally finished with Wakefieldd—16-1700 pages quarto.
The book is gruesomely written and still more gruesomely printed — nearly all figures and dates are wrong — but, as far as the material is concerned, unequalled in my practice. I have never before seen something so complete about a country. And the fellow has eyes and is fairly honest. The anxiety of the English concerning Ireland from 1808 to 1812 is priceless. Dispatches sent to India in which Lord W. Bentinck declared that Ireland was lost for England, were intercepted by the French and published.
316. Marx to Engels. 14 April
It is striking 8 o'clock; I must run to catch the post. Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 t i m e
316
MARX T O ENGELS [3 4]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 14 April 1870
DEAR FRED,
Enclosed, Wilhelm returned.' From the attached letter from Borkheim, [6 0 4] you will see what ill-mannered things Wilhelm says about me. I don't like such churlish sentimentality, and since Wilhelm is a born Darmstadt man and so has not, at least, the excuse that he is a born Westphalian, I have sent him a rather blunt reply.
In your article b he has intentionally overlooked the fact that the People's Party [3 8] and the 'National Liberals' are treated as the two poles of the same narrow-mindedness. O n Tuesday c I was at the Central Council*[1] for the first time once again, and took the opportunity to muster Pfänder, who had entered as a member once more (re-elected), but had not yet presented himself.[605] H e informed me that he had been called a week before to Schapper, who is very dangerously ill. Schapper wanted to see me; Pfänder did not inform me of this, because I could not walk well as a result of the business on my thigh. But I would have driven there if he had notified me. On the same evening (Tuesday), Lessner reported that Schapper was in articulo mortis.e I hope it is not as bad as that.
a See the previous letter. - b F. Engels, Preface to the Second Edition of 'The Peasant War in Germany'. - c 12 April - d General Council - e dying While I am on medical matters, just this: I regard the latest outbreak simply as after-effects, which arrive with some regularity, and then disappear as the warm weather proceeds. I believe, therefore, that I am finished with it for this year. As always, however, the arrival of warmer weather has produced the liver complaint (or whatever it is), and for this I am gulping Gumpert's medicine. Kugelmann claims that the only way to put me properly on my feet is to take the cure at Karlsbad(1) at the end of the summer. The whole thing derives from poor nourishment, this from poor digestion, and this is connected with the fact that my liver doesn't function properly. I would, therefore, ask you to question Gumpert about this. But it would be better if you said that the Karlsbad proposal came from my English doctor, for the very name Kugelmann might induce him not to judge the case objectively, contrary to his inclination and conscience. I feel that, in fact, some sort of decisive preventive measures must be taken, since one gets a year older every year, and this sort of infirmity is not helpful, either for ONE SELF or for ones outside effectiveness.
Did you know that Meyen had died? The copies of Zukunftb give, I must say, a fine picture of the Prussian-Liberal present. But the Future(2) will convert itself into the Present. As Future the paper is really bankrupt. In its new form, it comes under the sway of Sonnemann in Frankfort (with Weiss, as previously, as editor en chef). It should represent, purely politically, the People's Party in Berlin. Quelle imbécilité!d By abandoning its flirtation with the 'social question', it will completely lose its little bit of influence and circulation among the workers, and it will certainly not win over the Prussian, and especially Berlin bourgeois by a stronger South German coloration.
I enclose for you 2 Vienna workers' papers'e and 1 Égalité, and request the return of all three after reading.
In the Volskswille the 'structure' is 'fine' which the little Jew Leo Frankel (Schweitzer's Paris correspondent, I don't know whether still?) constructs from my explanation of the components of value. Par
exemple : | (labour power+wage labour — wage=independent worker7|f
From the Egalité you will gather that, at the Congress of the Suisse RomandP in La Chaux-de-Fonds, it came to open warfare between the Bakuninists led by Guillaume (the brute calls himself professor, is editor of Progrès in Locle, Bakunin's personal paper), and the Conseil Romand" (Geneva).(3) The presentation is very confused. On Tuesday evening Jung informed us of the official report of the Geneva COUNCIL,b written by the Russian Utine, who holds the function of secretary of the Romance Congress. The anti-Bakuninists, 2,000 persons, were outflanked and thereby forced to secessio,c by the Bakuninists, consisting of 600 persons, who, however, per fas et nef as,A including forged mandates, made sure of a larger number of delegates. There were stormy declarations about Bakunin's activities, which were exposed by Utine, among others. The COUNCIL Romand now demands, on the basis of the resolution of the last (Basle) Congress,[508] that the Central Council decide. We have replied: all FACTS, with the minutes of the meetings, must be sent here. Ditto, we have commissioned Jung to write to Guillaume, so that he may, ditto, submit his vouchers.
Recently also we had to rule on a dispute in Lyons.d And finally, in Basle, one clique (under State Attorney Bruhin) has laid charges with us against the other (more proletarian one). We have, however, referred the latter case, as completely local, to J. Ph. Becker as arbitrator.
In Paris Lafargue got to know a very learned Russian ladye (a friend of his friend Jaclard, an excellent young man). She told him: Flerovsky—although his book' passed censorship at the time of the LIBERAL FIT — has been, if you please, banished to Siberia for the same. The translation of my book has been confiscated and prohibited before being published.[196]
You will receive, this week or at the beginning of next: Landlord and Tenant Right in Ireland. Reports by Poor Law Inspectors. 1870, ditto Agricultural Holdings in Ireland. Returns. 1870.
The REPORTS of the POOR LAW INSPECTORS are interesting. Like their Reports on Agricultural Wages, which are already in your hands, they show that the conflict between USOI/HKS ON THE ONE HAND, FARMERS and TENANTS on the other, began after the FAMINE.[607] AS regards the Reports on Wages—assuming the present figures on wages are correct, and that is probable, considering other sources — the former wage rates are either quoted too low, or those in the earlier PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS, which I'll look out for you in my PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, were too high. On the whole, however, 14 1870
what I stated in the section on Ireland [6 0 8] is confirmed: that the rise in wages has been more than outweighed by that in food prices, and that, with the exception of the autumn period, etc., the RELATIVE SURPLUS of LABOURERS is properly established despite emigration. Also important in the Landlord and Tenant Right Reports is the FACT that the development of MACHINERY has turned a mass of
HANDLOOM WEAVERS into PAUPERS.
You would oblige me if you would tell me, quite shortly, about the BOGS, PEATS etc., of Ireland. In all the BLUE BOOKS I have read, the BOG is sometimes situated on the mountain, that is on the mountain slope, but also sometimes on the plain. What is the situation? What d o the IRISH understand by TOWNLANDS"?
It is clear from the two REPORTS of the POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS that 1. since the FAMINE the CLEARING of the ESTATES of LABOURERS has begun as in England (not to be confused with the SUPPRESSION of the 40s. FREEHOLDERS after 1829[609]).
2. that the ENCUMBERED ESTATES PROCEEDINGS have put a mass of small usurers in the place of the TURNED OUT prodigal LANDLORDS (the CHARGE
OF LANDLORDS '/6 according to the same REPORTS).
I would appreciate it if you and Moore could send me a few £s for Dupont. His wife is in hospital with consumption. H e himself has been TURNED OUT of his old trade. T h e excuse: his political opinions; the real cause: he made all the inventions, which his manufacturer appropriated. For this reason, he has been persona ingratah for a long time for him (he thinks he has sucked him completely dry). But the Manufacturer has cut his own throat, so FAR as Dupont has made a quite new invention, which solves a problem that has existed for a long time in piano manufacture. I have already given Dupont a few £s; since, together with his 3 small girls, he had been condemned to just dry bread. It's only a matter of helping for a few weeks until he finds a new position. W h o can write the story of WORKINGMEN EVICTED because of inventions] And, in addition, the poor devil is also being HARASSED by the jealousy of the Paris people, and the slanders of the FRENCH BRANCH,[72] who naturally immediately cornered Flourens.
Salut. Y o u r
K. M.
Apropos. Stirling (Edinburgh), the translator of Hegel's Logic,c
and heading the British SUBSCRIPTION for the Hegel monument — h a s
317. Engels to Marx. 15 April
written a small pamphlet against Huxley and his protoplasm .d As a Scotsman, the fellow has naturally adopted Hegel's false religion and Idea-istic mysticism (so induced Carlyle to declare publicly his conversion to Hegelianism). But his knowledge of Hegel's dialectic allows him to demonstrate Huxley's weaknesses — where he indulges in philosophising. His business in the same pamphlet against Darwin comes to the same as what the Berliner Blutschulze b (Hegelian OF THE OLD SCHOOL) said some years ago at the natural scientists' meeting in Hanover. [6 1 0]
317
ENGELS TO MARX[34]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 15 April 1870
Dear Moor,
Enclosed, returned, Borkheim. [6 0 4] Good old Wilhelm' did not expect his bragging about you would be communicated to you ipsissimis verbis.d Remains a blockhead all his life. The papers will be returned to you on Sunday evening. I shall try to see Gumpert tomorrow, but since he has himself been suffering with his nerves for some time because of 'over-work' (of what sort?), it's possible he'll be away during the holidays. In the meantime, I suggest you try taking strenuous walks — 3-4 hours together — for several consecutive days and, WEATHER PERMITTING, walk at least 1-2 hours daily, and then every week such a long walk at least 1-2 times. Now I can no longer work properly until I have walked for an hour or more; it has a wonderful effect and will certainly also get your liver more or less going again. In addition, I quite agree with Kugelmann's view.e
a J. H. Stirling, As Regards Protoplasm in Relation to Prof. Huxley's Essay on the Physical Basis of Life; T. H. Huxley, 'On the Physical Basis of Life', The Fortnightly Review, Vol. V, No. XXVI, 1 February 1869. - •> Franz Eilhard Schulze - c Wilhelm Liebknecht - d verbatim - e See this volume, p. 479.
Fränkelche[3] is a real yiddisher lad. He learned 'la formule' in Paris, and delivers good wares.b It's delicious that he understands the frais généraux' as part of surplus value, including wear and tear of machinery, lubrication, coal (if this is not raw material), ground rent, etc.
BOGS are simply peat bogs or marshes, which occur in 2 main sorts of locality: 1. on the plains, in valleys (old lake beds) or depressions, the exit from which has become blocked; 2. on heights with a flat or mildly-rolling summit, as a result of deforestation, where the moss, grass, heather, etc., become matted, and the water flows off, on average, more slowly than it rains in. A marsh in the plains sometimes even has a big river flowing through it, which, however, does not dry it out (various places on the Shannon, Donaumoss in Bavaria, etc.). Very usually such bogs are also the source reservoirs of rivers (the Bog of Allen, from which there flowed, in its original but now very reduced size, the Boyne, the Barrow, various tributaries of these two, and the Shannon). Chat Moss, between Liverpool and Manchester, which you know, is a real, typical Irish BOG, as Wakefieldd confirms. It lies at least 30-40 feet above the Mersey and Irwell, which flow around it in a semicircle, so drainage very easy, yet this is only about 7s done, and they've been at it since 1800. This is because of the landlords; such an object can naturally only be drained systematically and compulsorily. They have them in Holland too — peat bogs are the same all over Europe. The Irish name those on the plain RED BOG and the mountain [bog] BLACK BOG. Water trickling down can produce on the slopes — even very steep, 30-40 degrees — similar marshy places which, in time, produce peat. On steep slopes it's naturally only thin; on flatter ones it can get thicker and thicker. The thickest, naturally, is on the flat summits.
TOWNLANDS are the lowest administrative divisions in Ireland, which are everywhere based on the old Irish CLAN divisions, and in the north and the west these have mostly been retained unchanged. The counties represent the local dukedoms (Donegal, the realm of THE O'Donnell, who then had others under him, e.g., THE Mac Swine and his people. Tyrone is that of THE O'Neill, Fermanagh that of THE Maguire, etc.). The baronies represent the individual CLANS, and in these the ballybetaghs (as Davies writes itc) or, translated into English, TOWNLANDS, the individual village bounds,
[11] Leo Frankel - b See this volume, p. 479. - c general costs - d E. Wakefield, An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political. - e J. Davies, Historical Tracts.
15 1870
held jointly by the inhabitants. In Ulster, for example, these have been completely retained in their old boundaries; in other parts more or less. T h e PARISH, the POOR LAW UNION and other special English divisions, were later inserted between BARONY and TOWNLAND.
Your conclusions from the PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS a agree with my results. It should not, however, be forgotten that, in the first period after 1846, the process of CLEARING the 40SH. FREEHOLDERS609
was mixed u p with the CLEARING OF LABOURERS, the reason being that, u p to 1829, in order to produce FREEHOLDERS, LEASES FOR 21 or 31 YEARS AND A LIFE (if not longer) had to be made, since a m a n could only become a FREEHOLDER if he could not be turned out during his lifetime. These LEASES almost never excluded SUBDIVIDING. These LEASES were partly still valid in 1846, respectively the consequences, i.e., the peasants were still on the ESTATE. Ditto, on the estates then in the hands of MIDDLEMEN (who mostly held LEASES for 64 years AND THREE LIVES, or even for 99 years); these estates often only reverted between 1846 and 1860. Thus, these processes ± b ran mixed u p , respectively the Irish LANDLORD was never, or seldom, in a situation of having to decide whether particularly LABOURERS, rather than other traditional small TENANTS should be cleared. Essentially it comes to the same thing in England as in Ireland: the land must be tilled by labourers who live in other POOR LAW UNIONS, SO that the landlord and his tenant might be spared the pauper-rate. [6 1 1] This is stated by Senior, or rather by his brother Edward, POOR LAW COMMISSIONER in Ireland: T H E GREAT INSTRUMENT WHICH is CLEARING IRELAND is
THE POOR LAW.
Land sold since the ENCUMBERED ESTATE COURT amounts, according to my notes, to as much as V[5] of the total; the purchasers were indeed largely usurers, speculators, etc., mainly Irish Catholics. Partly, also, GRAZIERS who had become rich. Yet even now there are only about 8-9,000 landowners in Ireland. What do you say to the way the whole European bourgeoisie has made itself a laughing-stock, by pledging itself to the empire liberal, and lately awarding laurels to Louis Bonaparte for his sincere transition to constitutionalism? And now it comes to light that he means this so sincerely that he explicitly reserves for himself, for the suitable moment, the right to a coup d'état, vulgo a plebiscite.[612]
Nobody should be able to say that he had overthrown the constitution for a 2nd time. This is also a commentary on 'gouvernement direct par le peuple'," which the Swiss are now
a See this volume, pp. 480-81. - b more or less - c direct government by the people
318. Marx to Paul Lafargue. 18 April
introducing[613] and the French frankly don't want. What is a plebiscite called in Swiss — veto or referendum? This question should be put to Wilhelm. Ad vocem Wilhelm — have you seen the marvellous advertisement in No. 27 of Volksstaat: Who borrowed from me 'Kolb's Statistik""? W. Liebknecht. Not enough that he is sloppy; he has to advertise the fact too.
Zukunft—very amusing.b The jackasses! Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
318
MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE[614]
IN PARIS
[London,] 18 April 1870
Dear Paul-Laurent,[615]
I send enclosed credentials for Mr H. Verlet.[616] Let him give to the new section he is about to establish no sectarian 'name', either Communistic or other. Il faut éviter les 'étiquettes' sectaires dans l'Association Internationale.0 The general aspirations and tendencies of the working class emanate from the real conditions in which it finds itself placed. They are therefore common to the whole class although the movement reflects itself in their heads in the most diversified forms, more or less phantastical, more or less adequate. Those who interpret best the hidden sense of the class struggle going on before our eyes — the Communists are the last to commit the blunder of affecting or fostering sectarianism.
Mr Verlet would do well to put himself in communication with our friend Jules Johannard, 126 rue d'Aboukir.
One thing which ought to be done as quickly as possible, and which might be done by Paul-Laurent, is to publish in the Libre pensée a true and literal translation of the International Rules.3 The French current translation, emanating from our first Paris Committee, Tolain et Co., is full of intentional mistakes. They suppressed everything which they did not like. If a true translation was made, it would be well to send it me before its publication.617
In Germany people would much wonder at Verlet's appreciation of Büchner.bM8 In our country he is only considered, and justly so, as a vulgarisateur.
You know how much I admire le 'Roman de Conspiration'^ I was, therefore, truly delighted to see it so well appreciated by Paul-Laurent.
I am now forced to say a few words which Paul-Laurent will a little fret at, but I cannot help doing so.
Your father wrote me a letter to Hanover which I have not yet answered, because I did not know what to say.
I feel quite sure that Paul has discarded all notion of finishing, or occupying himself with, his medical studies. When at Paris I wrote to his father in a different sense, and I was warranted in doing so by Paul's own promises.d Thus I am placed in quite a false position towards M. Lafargue aine." I cannot remain in that fix. I see no other prospect of getting out of it but by writing to him that I have as little influence with his beloved son as himself. If you see any other way of escape for me, any other means of clearing my position, please communicate it to me.
In my opinion, which however I neither pretend nor hope to see accepted and acted upon, Paul-Laurent cum figlio* ought to pay a visit to their parents at Bordeaux and try to coax them by the many means personal intercourse permits of.
Yours truly...g
319. Engels to Marx. 19 April
319
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 19 April 1870
Dear Moor,
I forgot to write to you on Friday" that I had no money in the house and could, therefore, enclose nothing for that poor devil Dupont.(1) Enclosed S/6 11,916, Leeds, 15 July 1869—£5 for him. I hope it will suffice him until he has found a place again,
About Schapper, write to me, too, how things are going. I have not yet seen Gumpert. I am, however, firmly convinced that plenty of exercise during the present marvellous weather will do you a lot of good, and will constitute an excellent pre-cure to Karlsbad.b Yesterday, with Schorlemmer, I walked some 17-18 miles; you do the same, and you will soon forget you have a liver.
Today I am returning you 2 issues of Marseillaise and Égalité and the Vienna newspaper,c and enclose a few cuttings from the Examiner and Times on Ireland, which are particularly remarkable since they come from a Methodist who, as a result of his isms (TEETOTALISM), etc., hangs out with the /smists here; otherwise, the Examiner would certainly not have accepted them. I shall need them later, so send them back sometime.d
Apropos, what is Mr Williams(2) doing? Tussy writes that he is still working, but I see no results.
I ordered Flerovskyf some time ago, but have heard nothing further, so I assume it has been confiscated and is no longer available.
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
320. Marx to Engels. 19 April
320
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 19 April 1870
IN ALL HASTE
DEAR FRED,
I am sending you 2 PARLIAMENTARIES ON IRELAND, and the latest Egalité, ditto La Solidarité. From the enclosed letter from Perret,[619]
ex-secretary of the Federal Comité in Geneva — which I must have back by Friday—you will see how the Muscovite beast a is acting. H e was naturally forced to appeal also — which he did — to the CENTRAL COUNCIL[73] through his secretaire général Robert. I also enclose this letter.[620] What d o you think we should d o about these fellows?
MR WILLIAMS SENDS YOU HIS COMPLIMENTS. ONE OF HIS ARTICLES HE HAD SENT TO Reynolds's. H E WENT TO TOWN TO FIND ANOTHER COPY FOR YOU, BUT IT WAS NOT TO
BE GOT. T W O further ARTICLES b together with OTHER Marseillaises HE
SHALL FORWARD YOU THIS WEEK.
My wife took the £5 to Dupont this morning. BEST THANKS FOR IT.
HIS WIFE IS DYING IN THE HOSPITAL.
I have visited Schapper. Bad inflammation of the lungs, very emaciated, but perhaps h e can still be saved.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
We shall put a spoke in Bakunin's wheel in the Marseillaise through Flourens, who has seen through the 'FRENCH BRANCH' [7 2] and annexed himself to us. H E IS A MAN OF VERY GREAT RESOLUTION. LEARNED.
T o o SANGUINE.
321. Marx to Paul Lafargue. 19 April
321
MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 19 April 1870 Dear Paul-Laurent,[615]
I shall have you proposed by Dupont on Tuesday next.[621]
Meanwhile I call your attention to the presence in your committee[3] of Robin, Bakunine's agent who, at Geneva, did all in his power to discredit the General Council (he attacked it publicly in the Égalité)[507] and to prepare la dictature de Bakounine sur l'Association Internationale. He has been expressly sent to Paris there to act in the same sense. Hence this fellow must be closely watched without becoming aware of having a surveillant at his side.[622]
In order de vous mettre au courantb I must give you a succinct review of Bakunine's intrigue.
Bakunine does not belong to the International but for about lVc years. C'est un nouveau venu.d At the Bernee Congress (September 1868) of the Ligue de la Paix et de la Liberté f271 (he was one of the executive committee of this International middle-class Association founded in opposition to the proletarian International) he played one of the mountebank parts he delights in. He proposed a series of propositions, stupid in themselves, but affecting an aim of swaggering radicalism calculated to frighten les crétins bourgeoise[23]
In that way, being outvoted by the majority, he made his noisy exit from the League and had this great event triumphantly announced in the European press. He understands la réclame^ almost as well as Victor Hugo qui, comme Heine dit, n'est pas simplement égoïste, mais Hugoïste}f
Then he entered our Association — its Geneva branche Romande.(1)
His first step was a conspiracy. He founded l'Alliance de la Démocratie Socialiste. The Programme of that society[257] was nothing else but the series of resolutions proposed by Bakunine on the Berne Peace League Congress.' The organisation was that of a sect with its head-center at Geneva, constituting itself as an International Association which was to have General Congresses of its own, which was to form an independent international body, and, at the same time, to be an integral member of our Internationale. In one word, our Association was by this interlop-ing secret society by and by to be converted into an instrument du Russe'' Bakounine. The pretext was, that this new society was founded for the special purpose 'à faire la propagande théoretique'.h
Very funny indeed, considering that Bakunine and his acolytes know nothing of theory. But Bakunine's programme was 'the theory'. It consisted, in fact, of 3 points.
1) That the first requirement of the social Revolution was—the abolition of inheritance, vieillerie St Simoniste ,624 dont le charlatan et l'ignoramus Bakunine se faisait l'éditeur responsable .c It is evident: If you have had the power to make the social Revolution in one day, par décret plébiscitaire? you would abolish at once landed property and capital, and would therefore have no occasion at all to occupy yourselves with le droit d'héritage? On the other hand, if you have not that power (and it is of course foolish to suppose such a power), the proclamation of the abolition of inheritance would be not a serious act, but a foolish menace, rallying the whole peasantry and the whole small middle-class round the reaction. Suppose f.i. that the Yankees had not had the power to abolish slavery by the sword. What an imbecility it would have been to proclaim the abolition of inheritance in slaves] The whole thing rests on a superannuated idealism, which considers the actual jurisprudence as the basis of our economical state, instead of seeing that our economical state is the basis and source of our jurisprudence! As to Bakounine, all he wanted was to improvise a programme of his own making. Voilà tout. C'était un programme d'occasion*
2) L'êgalité des différentes classes.8 To suppose on the one hand the continued existence of classes, and on the other hand the égalité of the members belonging to them, this blunder shows you at once the shameless ignorance and superficiality of that fellow who made it his 'special mission' to enlighten us on 'theory'.
3) The working class must not occupy itself with politics. They must only organise themselves by trades-unions. One fine day, by means of the Internationale they will supplant the place of all existing states. You see what a caricature he has made of my doctrines! As the transformation of the existing States into Associations is our last end, we must allow the governments, these great trade-unions of the ruling classes, to do as they like, because to occupy ourselves with them is to acknowledge them. Why! In the same way the old socialists said: You must not occupy yourselves with the wages question, because you want to abolish wages labour, and to struggle with the capitalist about the rate of wages is to acknowledge the wages system! The ass has not even seen that every class movement as a class movement, is necessarily and was always a political movement.
This then is the whole theoretical baggage of Mahomet-Bakunine, a Mahomet without a Koran.
His conspiracy he went secretly on with. He had some affiliates in Spain and Italy, a few dupes at Paris and Geneva. Good old Becker was foolish enough to allow himself to be put forward somewhat in a leading character by Bakunine. He regrets his blunder at present.
The General Council was only informed and called upon to sanction the statutes of the 'Alliance' after Bakounine considered that concern as fait accompli. However he was mistaken. In an elaborate document the General Council declared the 'Alliance' to be an instrument of disorganisation, and rejected every connexion with it. (I shall send you the document.)[3]
A few months later, the Comité Directeur of the 'Alliance' addressed a letter to the General Council to the effect: The great men were willing to dissolve their organisation and merge it into the Internationale, but on the other hand, we were to declare categorically, Oui ou Non!,b whether we sanctioned their principles? If not, there would be a public secession on their part, and we would be responsible for such a misfortunec!
We answered that the General Council was not the Pope, that we allowed every section to have its own theoretical views of the real movement, always supposed that nothing directly opposite to our Rules was put forward. We hinted in a delicate way that we considered their 'theory' to be a sham. We insisted that 'l'égalité des
classes'd be changed for 'l'abolition des classes','' what they did.[301] We requested them to give us the dénombremente of their members, what they have never complied with. (You will also get this second document.f)
Thus the Alliance was nominally dissolved. In fact, it continued to form an Imperium in imperia Its branches had no connexion at all with the General Council, but that of conspiring against it. It acted under Bakunine's dictatorship. He prepared everything to frapper son grand coup au Congrès de Bale." On the one side, he made the Geneva Committee(2) propose la question d'héritage. We accepted the challenge.[625] On the other side, he conspired everywhere to discredit us and to have the seat of the General Council transferred from London to Geneva. At that congress, ce saltimbanque figurait comme 'délégué de Naples et de Lyon'b (at that latter place, Albert Richard, otherwise a very active and well-meaning youngster, is his acolyte). Where the fellow got the money for all his secret machinations, travels, missions of agents etc. remains to this moment a secret. Poor like a church mouse, he has never in his life earned a farthing by his own work.
At the Congress he was baffled. After the Congress he commenced to attack us publicly by his private moniteur, Le Progrès (de Locle), edited by his valet James Guillaume, a Swiss schoolmaster, and by the Égalité (de Genève).[507] We allowed this to go on for some time, and then sent a missive to the Federal Council of Geneva. (This document — copy of it — is in the hands of Varlin.) But before our circular arrived, the Federal Council of Geneva, never friendly to Bakunine and the Alliance, had broken loose from him. Robin et Co. were expulsed from the Editorship of the Egalité. The Federal Council of the Swiss Romand Section made his pronunciamento against the intrigues of the Alliance and its Muscovite dictator.
Meanwhile Bakounine had left Geneva to reside at Tessin. His circumstances were changed. Herzen died suddenly. Bakounine, who had attacked him fiercely during the latter times (probably because he found Herzen's purse shut against him), all at once became the fiery apologist of Herzen in the French etc. press.[586]
Why? Because Herzen (although a millionaire) received annually for his Cloche and 'propagande Russe' a rather large sum from the Panslavistes démocrates in Russia.[587] Although a fierce enemy de l'héritage Bakounine wanted to inherit Herzen's position and salary. He succeeded by his panegyrics of the dead man. He had the Cloche, the subvention etc. transferred to himself.c
On the other hand there had grown up at Geneva a colony of Russian émigrés,[541] enemies of Bakunine, because they knew the mere personal ambition of this very mediocre man (although an accomplished intriguer) and because they knew that in his 'Russian' writings he propagates doctrines quite contrary to the principles of the Internationale.
The late Swiss Romand Congress at La Chaux de Fonds (5 April this year) was seized upon by Bakunine and his moutons(3) to bring about an open split.[606] The Congress was split into two Congresses, on the one hand a Congress of Bakunites, proclaiming abstention from all politics, representing about 600 men; on the other hand the Congress of the Federal Comité of Geneva, representing 2,000 men. Outine (c'est un des jeunes Russes) dénonça publiquement les intrigues de Bakounine.b His men have constituted themselves as a 'Federal Central Council' pour la Suisse Romande," and have founded their own organ La Solidarité, edited by Bakounine's valet de chambre, James Guillaume. The 'principle' of that paper is 'Bakounine'. Both parties have appealed to the General Council.
Thus this damned Muscovite has succeeded to call forth a great public scandal within our ranks, to make his personality a watchword, to infect our Working Men's Association with the poison of sectarianism, and to paralyse our action by secret intrigue.
He hopes to be strongly represented at our next Congress. To direct to himself the attention of Paris, he has opened a correspondence with the Marseillaise. But we have spoken with Flourens, who will put a stop to this.
You are now sufficiently informed to counteract Bakounine's movements within our Paris branches.
My thanks to Laurentc for her letter.[627] Another time try to find an envelope for your missives which is not so easily opened.
Apropos. Look whether you possess still the article of the Queen's Messenger on Lord Clanricarde.e We want it here and can get it from nowhere else.
Yours
Old Nick
322. Engels to Marx. 21 April
322
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 21 April 1870
Dear Moor,
Enclosed, returned, the Swiss letters. The Genevans are, at all events, rather sluggish, otherwise they would not have got into this unfortunate position with the Bakuninists formally having the rules on their side with regard to them. This does not, of course, alter the fact that the Genevans must remain in the right; but, for the time being, the General Council has no reason to intervene, since the Genevans have appealed for a ballot in the sections, and you will have to wait for the result of this, one way or the other, before making a decision. The Bakuninists will probably not let themselves in for this referendum, since their règlement fédéral(1)
probably makes no mention of it, and they will, thereby, expose their weak point in wishing to sacrifice the unity of the International, and the International itself into the bargain, to their empty formalism. Then there would be reason enough to intervene. On the other hand, the Genevans themselves must see to it this time that they gain the majority in their plebiscite. Till then, the General Council could, at the most, suspend both central committees, and replace them by a neutral provisional one (Becker,(2) etc.).
In the matter itself it is clear that the Alliance, even if tolerated by the General Council, has no place in a local organisation like the Suisse Romande,c since it wishes to correspond with all countries and maintain sub-sections there. Thus it should either stay out of it, or abandon its international character. Whereas, if the business in Switzerland continues to develop, the result will be either that it leaves the International completely, or can be thrown out. But it must be impressed on the Messrs Genevans that they cannot be helped unless they help themselves. If Bakunin were to get a majority of the workers of the Suisse Romande on his side, what could the General Council do? The only conceivable point is that of the total abstinence from all politics, but even this action would not be so certain.
323. Marx to Engels. 28 April
The Messrs Genevans might have kept their God in the bag too![628]
Your
F. E.
323
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 28 April 1870
DEAR FRED,
I visited Schapper again yesterday. I FEAR HE IS FAST SINKING. He himself spoke of his death as settled, even told me he had instructed his wife to have him buried next Sunday. It is consumption of the lungs. Schapper spoke and acted really d'une manière distinguée.* As long as his wife and eldest son were in the room he conducted the conversation (he can only speak with difficulty) in French. Je ferai bientôt la dernière grimace.b He poked fun at old Oborski, who in the past few months has become a Catholic and says his prayers; ditto at Ruge, who once again believes in the immortality of the soul. In this case, he said, Schapper's soul would play rough with Ruge's soul in the hereafter. It gives him pleasure to make jokes about the old stories, meetings with Louis Bonaparte, Dr Conneau, Persigny, General Cavaignac etc., later Willich, etc. It comforts him that his daughter is married, his eldest son Karl is independent (a bookbinder), and each of the two younger ones already earning £1 PER WEEK (as goldsmiths). H e hopes his brother (Nassau) will take in his youngest. H e has left all his scant possessions to his wife, and she will live with the two younger boys. 'Tell all our people that I have remained true to our principles. I am no theoretician. During the period of reaction I had my hands full bringing u p my
* in a very composed manner - b I shall soon pull my last face.
family. I have lived as a HARD WORKING worker, and die a proletarian.' I gave him your greetings, and said that, had you believed the business was dangerous, you would have come up to see him. This obviously pleased him. Schapper is 57 years old. The true manliness of his character emerged once again clearly and strikingly.
Leaving Schapper, I had to make a second sick-bed visit. Borkheim wrote me a few lines the day before yesterday, that he had been at home sick the whole week, would probably have to stay in bed another week, then to the country, etc. From the way his wife received me, I saw immediately that the matter was sérieux He had had typhoid fever; seems now on the road to improvement. His lungs have certainly been affected. The English doctor — one of the hospital doctors here — predicted all this, and repeats now that he hopes, and is virtually sure, that he will get away with it this time, but that if Borkheim does not abandon his mad life, he has not as much as a year before him.
The fact is that Borkheim studies Russian etc., with frenzy from 4.30 or 5 in the morning until 9, then again from 7 in the evening until 11. You know he writes polemical letters to everybody under the sun and, since he came into possession of a considerable library, has wished to make himself a scholar by brute force.
The doctor demands that he should chuck up everything except business for at least two years, and devote his leisure to light reading and other relaxations. Otherwise he is lost, and this inevitably. He has not the physical strength to do the work of two people.
I saw him for ABOUT 10 MINUTES. He looked damnably fatigué and thin. I told him that, as long as you were tied to business, you had engaged yourself only VERY MODERATELY in other things. I did this on purpose, since I know he respects you very much. When I came downstairs to his wife in the PARLOUR I recounted the conversation to her. She said — and I promised to do what I could to this end — that you would do her the greatest favour by writing to her husband. First of all, it would cheer him up greatly — such a sign of attention on your part — and second, he .would take it to heart if you advised him not to ruin himself by EXTRA WORK.
It is my FEELING that Borkheim is, at the moment, hors de danger," but he must watch out like the devil. Apropos. He is very annoyed with Liebknecht, for first printing the Bakunin letter(1) and then writing to him (Borkheim) that he (Borkheim) must now answer.
28 1870
Good old Wilhelm, always READY to make BLUNDERS so that others must work! C'est un imbécile* Flourens has already visited me at home several times. H e is a very nice fellow. His predominant characteristic is AUDACITY. But he is very well educated in the natural sciences. For a year he gave lectures on ethnology [6 3 0] at Paris University, and was all over the place in Southern Europe, Turkey, ASIA MINOR, etc. Full of illusions and revolutionary impatience, BUT A VERY JOLLY FELLOW WITH ALL THAT, not one of the 'damned serious' school of men. His name has been proposed for our COUNCIL, where he has twice assisted as a guest. It would be a very good thing if he were to stay here longer. It is WORTH WHILE working on him. If, however, Bonaparte grants an amnesty after the plebiscite, he will return to Paris. Yesterday evening, he and Tibaldi were given a banquet by the FRENCH Freemasons' lodge, the FRENCH BRANCH,[72] etc. L. Blanc, Talandier, etc., also wanted t o b take part. All the French revolutionary riff-raff here are courting him, but he is already PRETTY WELL informed about these gentry.
My best thanks for your explanation about the IRISH BOG.C For fun I got hold of the RETURN on GAME LAWS CONVICTIONS (ENGLAND AND WALES) for 1869. Total number of CONVICTIONS: 10,345. These are thus the specific AGRARIAN CRIMES of the English and Welsh. Why does not Mr Gladstone also suspend the constitution in England?
You were right to smell a rat in Pigott's letter. From the enclosed Flag of Ireland (LETTER of the Paris correspondent of The Irishman in it) one can see the fellow Pigott's mauvaise foid—since he knows we take The Irishman here — has the muck printed in the Flag. I a m sending you, with the Flag, 5 numbers of Spanish organs of the International, viz. 2 Federacion, 1 Obrero and 1 Solidaridad I shall only send off the copies of Marseillaise on Saturday. First, I must make some notes from them about the Creuzot case, etc. for the CENTRAL COUNCIL.631
Last Tuesday e the Central Council [7 3] unanimously adopted my proposal (SUPPORTED BY Mottershead'): TO SEVER OUR CONNEXION WITH THE Bee-Hive AND TO PUBLISH THAT RESOLUTION. Mr Applegarth sat opposite me while I was giving the reasons for my proposal, with A DIMINISHED HEAD. H e and Odger on editorial committee of Bee-Hive. I denounced the paper as being sold to the bourgeois (S. Morley, etc.), mentioned particularly its treatment of our Irish resolutions
a He is an idiot. - b in the original: will - c See this volume, p. 488. - d bad faith - c 26 April - f See this volume, p. 386.
and debates, etc.(2) I should introduce the formal motionb on the decision of the COUNCIL next Tuesday.c
Salut.
Your
Moor
324. Engels to Wilhelm Bracke. 28 April[632]
I was very pleased by the detailed and precise financial statement.h33 Here, in England, in front of my very eyes, so many attempts to found workers' movements and organisations have failed because of bad treasurer's work and book-keeping, and the resultant recurrent justified and unjustified charges of embezzlement and so on, that in this case I can consider myself competent to deliver judgement on the importance of this point. The workers have to deprive themselves for every farthing, so have the fullest right to know where every farthing goes, as long as they do not need and are not putting aside secret funds. And I believe that this is of special importance, particularly in Germany, since there, too, exploitation of the workers by knavish agitators has become the fashion. It is a hollow pretext to say that, by publishing such financial statements, you betray the weakness of your own party to the enemy. If the enemy wishes to judge the strength of a workers' party according to its specifically weak side — the state of its funds — it will, in any case, be out in its reckoning. And the damage done in one's own ranks by keeping such things secret is far greater than that which can arise from publication.
325. Engels to Marx. 29 April
Bonhorst bewails the apathy of the workers[634]—but I find that things are going unexpectedly swimmingly in Germany. The individual successes naturally entail a hard struggle, and those involved naturally think things are going too slowly. But compare 1860 and 1870, and compare the present state of affairs in Germany with that in France and England — and recall the head start that these two countries had over us! The German workers have got half a dozen of their people into parliament; the French and the English not a single one Allow me to remark, in this connection, that all of us here regard it as of the greatest importance that as many worker candidates stand as possible in the coming elections, and that as many are elected as possible.a
325
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 29 April 1870
Dear Moor,
I wrote immediately to Borkheim,[635] addressed to 10 Brunswick Gardens, Kensington W.b If that is not correct, be so good as to notify him.
I would, in fact, have been glad to come over to see Schapper, and would still do so, had not your letter led me to assume he was already dead. There was always something so elementally revolutionary about him, and even if the poor fellow -has to go sometime, I am pleased at least that he is behaving so finely to the end. If, as the result of the pleurisy, he has contracted consumption, then there is nothing to be done, and it will happen very quickly.
Bakunin's letter is really very naïve.[629] What hard luck for the world, were it not a ghastly lie, if there were 40,000 revolutionary students in Russia, without a proletariat or even a revolutionary peasantry behind them, and with any career ahead of them except the dilemma: Siberia, or emigration to Western Europe. If there were anything that could ruin the West European movement, it would be the importation of these 40,000±(1) educated, ambitious, hungry Russian nihilists; all of them officer cadets without an army, which we should provide them; a marvellous piece of impertinence that, in order to bring unity to the European proletariat, it must be commanded in Russian! Yet however greatly Bakunin exaggerates, it is as clear as day that the danger exists. CattTafi Pycbb will spit out a certain number of these 'careerless' Russians every year, and, with the excuse of the principe international, they will creep in everywhere amongst the workers, swindle their way into leading roles, carry their private intrigues and brawls — unavoidable amongst the Russians — into the sections, and then the GENERAL COUNCIL will have its work cut out. It has already struck me that Utine has already found a way to obtain a position with the Genevans. And these Russians moan that, back at home, all positions are occupied by Germans!
I have had it out in all friendship with Wilhelm on various points, both about his previous attitude and also about his present attitude in the Reichstag. Bonhorst was arrested in Eschweiler because he lacked legitimation papers, after the Reichstag had passed the Passport Abolition Law, yet Monsieur Liebknecht misses the chance to interpellate the government about flagrant illegality and to force it to confess that such laws are in no way intended to apply to workers. And the jackasses expect the workers to re-elect them. Incidentally, I have also written to Bracke, who approached me for money for the 'Party', saying how necessary it is that they should nominate worker candidates and force them through everywhere/ Wilhelm is capable of saying that this is not necessary at all.
The Spanish papers and the Flagc—received with thanks. When I travelled past Majorca in 1849 I would not have dreamed that, in 20 years, we would have a paperd there. At the time that hole was regarded as a Corsican wilderness.
Pigott remains the same ambiguous figure. In Ireland they must have a 'Republic', but the French should remain under Bonaparte. They will pass over my booke in silence when it appears, just as they do now with the Irish articles in the Marseillaise^
326. Marx to Engels. 29 April
The ancient laws of Ireland, [3] through which I am at present rummaging, are a bitter mouthful. First, the text itself is not very clear, since it assumes a knowledge of all ancient Irish law, which no longer exists. 2. It is very garbled. 3. T h e translation is bad, and in places definitely wrong, but it is clear that the agrarian conditions were not quite as simple as good old Daviesb—with interest — described them. T h e laws insofar as published, give only the complicated side, not the simple one. Incidentally, I am not yet through with the stuff; from time to time I am forced to refer to the Celtic text, too, and since I don't even have a grammar, I don't get along very fast. But so much is clear: the editors, for all their knowledge of Celtic, don't understand the contents any more than I do.
These things have been published at state cost by the COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE ANCIENT LAWS AND INSTITUTES OF IRELAND.636 It is obviously a gruelling job. In which PARLIAMENTARY PAPER can one find out how much these fellows cost annually? They have been in session since 1852, do nothing except engage WORKING UNDERSTRAPPERS, and these two volumes are all that has appeared so far.
Best greetings to you all.
Your
F. E.
3,26
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 29 April 1870
327. Engels to Marx. 1 May
must have them back (with the Swiss Egalité and Solidarité) because of notes for the GENERAL COUNCIL,11 for which I have not yet found time. (Don't send back the Spanish papers.) Ditto, latest Vorbote. You will see from this that Becker b has broken openly with Bakunin. c
(Don't send back.) Finally, ONE COPY of the Russian translation of our Communist Manifesto for you. I saw in the Werker, etc., that the Kolokol publishing house, which was willed to Bakunin, also includes 'this stuff, so ordered 6 copies from Geneva.[037] It's very interesting for us.
Addio OLD BOY. COMPLIMENTS TO MRS Lizzy, Jollymeyer AND Moore.
Old
Nick
327
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 1 May 1870
Dear Moor,
POOR Schapper! T h e toll amongst our old comrades is getting very high.e Weerth, Weydemeyer, Lupus, Schapper — but, all the same, à la guerre comme à la guerre.1 Couldn't you get me a photograph of him? Or, if possible, two, you know the Solingen people also want one.
Thanks for the papers. Everything requested goes back tomorrow. I would have sent Egalité and Solidarité long ago, but I thought the GENERAL COUNCIL would have received several copies. In the Spanish things, which certainly still betray a rather Spanish standpoint, you can see how Bakunin's phraseology shines through.
I saw Gumpert yesterday. When he asked after you, and I told him your liver complaints were flaring up again, he blew up without waiting for anything further: Why doesn't he go to Karlsbad? There you have the answer/ He thinks it would be best early in the summer, or only towards autumn, since it is very full there in July-August, and horribly hot. The Crown Prince of Prussia[13] is there at the moment, wouldn't you like to keep him company? He is an 'edicated'(1) man.
The resolution on Bee-Hiveb will please Sam Moore greatly; he has taken Bee-Hive up to now, and been very annoyed at the lousy sheet. I shall tell him he should take Reynolds's, or do you know something better? Does the Democratic News still exist?
Enclosed, the latest from Wilhelm." He very much favours Prussia being the only serious opponent of the revolution in Germany, but is very much against it being a serious opponent.[638]
Pauvre hère!c
Lizzie, for whom I immediately made a quick translation of the 3 Williams,d is absolutely enthusiastic about them, and thanks MR Williams warmly.
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
For some time now your letters have been arriving in an unobjectionable condition. At least they have become more careful.
Steps have presumably been taken for a decent obituary on Schapper in the press? I don't know whether Eccarius is the man to do justice to this best type of old conspirator.
328. Marx to Engels. 7 May
328
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTERS«
[London,] 7 May 1870
DEAR FRED,
All sorts of interesting things have happened here this week. But the English post is too INQUISITIVE at the moment, and I don't feel the call to SUPPLY it indirectly with news. So, about this, later by word of mouth.[639]
The Marseillaise did not arrive today. Possibly it has been confiscated. Last Wednesday" we informed them by telegraph that they would receive the General Council resolutionb on Thursday in the original French; they should not translate it from English. This telegram naturally came immediately to the attention of the Paris police, and Pietri does not, perhaps, want our proclamation one day before the plebiscite.
The absurd Reuter-Havas telegrams have finally given us the long-awaited opportunity to declare publicly in the Paris press that the SO-CALLED LONDON FRENCH BRANCH does not belong to the International.[640]
Yesterday and the day before The Standard published two lousy articles against the International, dictated directly from the French Legation, as, ditto, the article in the London French paper
L'International.
All London papers have received instructions from Bruce—and naturally obey them like the born dogs they are — not to mention a word in their columns about the steps the English police have taken very quietly in past weeks with regard to Flourens and the International GENERAL COUNCIL (they make a HODGE PODGE out of the two).
Ten thousand COPIES of The Standard mentioned have been sent to France. Is this, also, a method of payment, or has the Société du 10
Décembre[641] suddenly learned English?
Last Tuesday the rumour was spread in London that we were going to be arrested in our meeting room. As a result PRESS REPORTERS, for once hungry for news, were in attendance.
In England, at a moment of panic the fellows immediately forget their own laws, and allow themselves to be carried away by the press, which is partly ignorant, and partly lies with intent.
T o be nice to the police, let us assume that everything reported by Grandperret, Reuter and the Journal officiel is gospel truth. Even so, the English Government could d o nothing, apart, at the most, from making fools of themselves.
T h e r e can, d'abord,(1) be n o question of the extradition of Flourens— Gaulois says it has been demanded. [6 4 2] T h e r e is only one Extradition Treaty between France a n d the UNITED KINGDOM, that of 1843. In 1865 the French Government declared it would denounce it after 6 months, since it was practically unworkable because of the ENGLISH LAWS OF EVIDENCE. A S a result, in 1866 some of the formalities regarding EVIDENCE were changed, without any change in the content of the treaty. This specifies very precisely the crimes that lead to extradition, including murder (PARRICIDE, INFANTICIDE, a n d m u r d e r by poison) and attempted murder, notabene, attempts in the sense qu'il y avait un commencement d'exécution^ 'THE DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF WHICH WOULD PROBABLY BE THE DEATH
OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHOSE LIFE WAS ATTACKED'.
Under this treaty Beaury, for instance, could not be extradited had he fled to England, let alone Flourens.
T h e only question is whether a FOREIGNER here could be sentenced by an English court for COMPLICITY IN A CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT
THE CRIME OF MURDER ABROAD. Before 1828 nobody — Englishman or FOREIGNER — could be prosecuted here for MURDER COMMITTED OUT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. English duellists made use of this. SECT. 7 OF 9, GEO. IV stipulated,
'THAT IF ANY OF H. M.S "SUBJECTS" SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH MURDER OR WITH ANY ACCESSORY TO MURDER COMMITTED ON LAND OUT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM HE SHOULD BE TRIABLE FOR SUCH OFFENCES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM'.
T h e law was, in fact, made to fit English duellists, and therefore applies only to 'HER MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS'.
At Dr Bernard's TRIAL' in 1858 h e therefore pleaded 'THAT THE COURT HAD NO JURISDICTION'. T h e SERVILE COURT reserved this point, without taking a decision, and ruled that, for a start, A PLEA OF NOT GUILTY SHOULD BE RECORDED. His ACQUITTAL prevented any further decision on this LEGAL POINT.
Immediately after the Orsini PLOT of 1858, Palmerston introduced the CONSPIRACY BILL into the HOUSE OF COMMONS, 'WITH THE OBJECT OF MAKING CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER EITHER WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM OR WITHIN THE TERRITORY OF ANY FOREIGN STATE A FELONY".
This BILL was justified by the following in
1. 'CONSPIRACY WAS ONLY A MISDEMEANOUR' and that, under English LAW, a CONSPIRACY TO MURDER is nothing more nor less than A CONSPIRACY TO
BLACKEN A MAN'S CHARACTER.
2. And this was shown very emphatically by the ATTORNEY GENERAL Sir R. Bethell—
'THAT THE 9 GEO. IV SECT. 7 ONLY APPLIED TO NATIONAL BORN BRITISH SUBJECTS, AND THAT FOREIGNERS RESIDENT IN THIS UNITED KINGDOM COULD CONSPIRE TO COMMIT MURDER ABROAD WITH IMPUNITY'.
T h e CONSPIRACY BILL, as everyone knows, was rejected, and Lord Palmerston fell FOR THE TIME BEING, together with the bill.
The whole commotion in the English and French press is, therefore, complete nonsense. If the worst comes to the worst, Flourens could be prosecuted for a MISDEMEANOUR in order, finally, to obtain a DEFINITIVE JUDICIAL DECISION on 9 GEO. IV SECT. 7 and certainly to fail thereby, and be forced to table the CONSPIRACY BILL. Gladstone will tempt the devil where Palmerston failed.
If this PLOT — for the ASSASSINATION of Badinguet [3]—is not simply a police invention, then it is the biggest possible bit of tomfoolery open to man. Luckily, the EMPIRE can no longer be saved even by the stupidity of its enemies.
Bakunin's agent Robin, now in Paris and a member of the Paris Federation (Internationale),[644] immediately proposed a resolution there recognising the new Conseil Romand as the genuine one, and making a public announcement in the Marseillaise that only its supporters are really MEMBERS of the Internationale. But we had advised o u r people in Paris.b Robin thus failed gloriously with his resolution. It was decided that the Federation Parisienne had absolutely no autorité to intervene; the matter was something for the Conseil Général in London. This business is, however, characteristic of the modus operandi of Gospodin c Bakunin.
T h e Paris PLOT brings to a sorry end the well-advanced plan to hold the Congress in Paris, and to take this opportunity also to transfer the General Council there.
I have received from Bakunin the 5 first Nos. of Kolokol and its French supplément. Even the Russian programme is very characteristic.[643] T h e paper should be in no way the expression of an
a a nickname of Napoleon III (the name of a stonemason in whose clothes he fled from the prison in 1846) - b See this volume, p. 489. - c Mr exclusive party (Bbipa>KeHie KaKoö-AHÖo HCKAioHHTeAbHoft nap-rin) but of all decent people (HecTHbixi» AK>4eft)(2) who desire the 'liberation of Russia' and who are 'dissatisfied with the present conditions'. No pedantry, above all practical] For our part, we, Western Europe and the UNITED STATES, should confine ourselves exclusively to propaganda of the theory of Mr Bakunin (i.e., the absence of all theory), and this in such a manner as though all nations had already been abolished. He thus bans us from any intervention, in either domestic or foreign policy. What an artful dodger!
Things are going slowly with Borkheim, but he is improving. I visited him again last Thursdayb (on this trip I caught a frightful cold, which is almost driving me mad). He was delighted with your letter.[635] From his 'enclosure' you will see his need to make a fool of himself.[646] The gentility with which he — a born figure of func—delivers his estimate of Lever, was so patronising — he laughs now and then, and excuses this with his sickness — and the naivety with which he believes one can supply him with Harry Lorrequer par douzainesd like blackberriese! After this I sent him Peter Simple* and, in fact, he finds this 'much better'.
Schapper was buried last Wednesday.f Write down for me any biographical notes about him you have in your head. We shall have to compose a short obituary.
COMPLIMENTS TO MRS LIZZY, Moore, Jollymeyer.h
El Moro (My beard becomes whiter daily.)
You will receive with this: two numbers of Égalité, and of the pamphlets plébiscitaires :
Aux Electeurs, Par Alceste (finely written), Le Plébiscite Impérial par Rogeard (very bad), Le Plébiscite de Boquillon par A. Humbert (one of the Marseillaise editors, fine burlesque) (in the style of Offenbach's music).
329. Engels to Marx. 8 May
329
ENGELS TO MARX[180]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 8 May 1870
Dear Moor,
With his plot-comedy, Mr Pietri appears to me to have far overshot the mark. In the end the policemen don't even believe one another's buffoonery. It's really too fine. This scurvy Bonaparte has a fixed remedy for every sickness; in case of a plebiscite, the populus must be given a dose of assassination, just as every quack begins every bigger treatment with a strong laxative. I am longing to hear the result of the treatment; so far I know only about the Paris vote, which was so good that all forgeries by officials could not falsify it completely.[612]
The Daily News and Observer virtually announced that the English police had obtained the necessary and telegraphed it to the French police. With the FENIAN SCARE the English police have completely dropped their disguise and are baser than any other. NB. Do use thinner paper for your envelopes; I could open these thick envelopes without leaving a trace.
You really should publish in France and Germany the heroic deeds of the English police regarding the International and Flourens.[3]
10,000 COPIES=£40 is damned cheap; I would have expected The Standard to sell itself dearer. This manner of bribery has, however, long been common here.
Flerovsky(1) does not appear to have been confiscated; there are copies at least in Leipzig. My bookseller, the jackass, did not order the Russian text but a non-existent English translation. Hence the non-arrival.
So KOJIOKOM) [Kolokol] will be even finer under Bakunin than it was under Herzen.b
Monsieur Wilhelmc is no longer to be borne. You will have seen that 'owing to the absence of the printer' (who is, thus, the real editor), the Peasant Ward was printed in a mix-up that Grandperret could not have managed better and, at the same time, the dunderhead has the impudence to affix marginal notes that are complete nonsense, without any note as to authorship, and everyone will ascribe them to me. I have already forbidden him to do this once before, and he was piqued; but the nonsense is laid on so thick that it is no longer bearable. Ad vocem* Hegel, the fellow glosses: known to the general public as the discoverer (!) and glorifier (!!) of the royal Prussian state concept (!!!). I have retorted to him suitably, and have sent him, for publication, a declaration as mild as was possible under the cricumstances. This dunderhead, who has been jogging around helplessly for years on the ridiculous contradiction between right and might, like an infantry man placed upon a horse with the staggers and locked in the riding-school — this ignoramus has the insolence to wish to dispatch a man like Hegel with the word 'Preuss'b and, at the same time, suggests to the public that J had said it. I have now had enough of the whole thing. If Wilhelm doesn't publish my declaration, I shall turn to his superiors, the 'Committee',0 and if they also get up to tricks, I shall prohibit any further publication. I would rather not be published than let Wilhelm proclaim me a jackass thereby.[647]
Borkheim, returned enclosed. The fellow is gracious enough to wish to find Leverd jocose. 'Boquillon'e is very nice; I haven't yet read the other things.'
I can tell you nothing about Schapperg that you do not know yourself or you could not get much better from Pfänder.
The Kölnische Zeitung has been gammoned into writing that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is covered with protoplasm—'a moving slime that nourishes itself.h
In LONDON CLAY, Owen has found the skull of a giant bird, similar to the great wingless birds of New Zealand.
The jolliest point about old Irish law[481] is the family law. Those must have been free-and-easy times. Polygamy existed, was at least tolerated, and the concubines here were divided into 6-7 classes, including one, the imris, 'WHOM HE (THE MAN) HAS WITH THE CONSENT OF HER HUSBAND'. Very naive, too, is the regulation about the disposition of property. If they both have the same amount, the husband and (the first or main) wife dispose of it jointly. If the husband has everything and the wife nothing, the husband disposes. Has the wife all and the husband nothing, then 'the wife takes the position of the husband, and the husband that of the wife'. Yet still more civilised than the modern English laws.
The legal position of hommes entretenus* is also defined. Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
Don't talk about grey hairs. They are growing thickly enough in my beard, but the corresponding dignitas simply won't appear.
330. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. About 8 May
Dear Kugelmann,
As a filthy cough has made me incapable of writing for the moment, herewith only MY BEST THANKS FOR THE FINE BIRTHDAY PRÉSENTS.11
YOURS TRULY
Karl Marx
331. Marx to Engels. 10 May
331
MARX TO ENGELS[56]
IN MANCHESTERS«
[London,] 10 May 1870
DEAR FRED,
Yesterday I received the enclosed screed from Wilhelm.(1) An incorrigible South German bumpkin.
You will see from it, d'abord, that the blockhead never wrote to Meissner b and attended to all my commissions in the same way. And, for precisely this reason, I should now write to him 'regularly', and you should go to 'Stuttgart', in the same way as he wished to propose you as a MEMBER of the North German Reichstag[648]!
I had written to him[649] that if, when he wrote about Hegel, he knew nothing better than to repeat the old Rotteck-Welcker muck, then he would do better to keep his mouth shut.c He says that this would be 'making rather informally short work, etc' of Hegel, and when he writes stupidities beneath Engels' articles, then 'Engels can of course (!) say something at greater length (!!)'. The fellow really is too stupid.
The circular,d which reached him in such a 'romantic' manner, states that the General Council reserves the right to speak about Schweitzer, etc., 'publicly' as soon as it considers suitable. This Wilhelm converts into us wanting to make a 'public declaration'— for Wilhelm!
With regard to the next congress, what do you think of Bebel's suggestion about Mainz or Mannheim[650]? Better Mainz. The business would be a good thing, insofar as Mr Bakunin et Co. would be totally powerless in Germany.
Shameless Wilhelm, who thought my Bonaparte' scarcely worth a note in his sheet/ demands my permission to publish my articles on the French Revolutione!
From the Marseillaise of last Sunday(2) you will see that Opinion nationale, the Plon-Plonh sheet, has discovered that the French original of our declaration,3 written by me, was certainly written in Parisl Incidentally, I am pleased that this sheet is finally abandoning the patronage it has hitherto granted us, which we found very distasteful.
The ancient Irish business with women quite pales compared to what the Celts in WALES allowed themselves in that field. This was (up until the 11th-12th century) quite Fourier's fantasy mise en pratique^
For my birthday, Kugelmann sent me two pieces of wallpaper from Leibniz's study, which amused me very much. It appears Leibniz's home was pulled down last winter, and the stupid Hanoverians — who could have made good business in London with the relics — threw everything away. Each of these two pieces depicts something mythological, one Neptune in his waves, etc., the other Venus, Amor, etc., all in poor Louis XIV style. On the other hand the quality (solidity) of the hand manufactory of those days compares well with today's. I have hung the two pieces up in my study. You KNOW MY ADMIRATION FOR Leibniz.
I am still suffering so much from the nose stoppage resulting from my last visit to Borkheim that my daughters have forbidden me to go to the GENERAL COUNCIL this evening, and threaten, if I disobey, to send to FRED Engels A SAVAGE DENUNCIATION OF MY CONDUCT. My presence there is really very necessary just now. Enfin, nous verrons !c
Apropos. I recently purchased a 14-volume edition of Swift (of 1760) for all of 4'/2 shillings. So, as soon as you need to look at Swift's things about Irish subjects, the necessary will be sent to you.
Has not the time nearly come for us to look around for a house for you here, and for you to give instructions IN THAT LINE?
Salut.
Your
K. M.
The elections in France — so far as they make sense — have produced a grand result. A great and ever repeated tomfoolery of the Republicans to persuade the poor devils of soldiers to vote 'no'. A quoi bon?d That the government should repeat the old trick, get to know and to root out the unreliable elements. Very
332. Engels to Marx. 11 May
soon, the 4,000 military NO VOTERS of Paris will have vanished, partly to Algeria, partly to distant provincial punitive garrisons.[6]
332
ENGELS TO MARX[56]
IN LONDON
Manchester, 11 May 1870
Dear Moor,
The relevant Liebknecht stuff was missing; I suppose it will turn
fi4R up tomorrow.
Holding the congress in Germany would present some difficulties, since one simply does not know what laws rule there, though one does know which police practices prevail. But it is fairly certain that a dissolution of the congress by the police would be the worst to be expected; the people would be safe, with the exception of a possible 24-hour detention; but it would have to be determined now where the congress should reassemble if dissolved— in Belgium or Switzerland. Otherwise, Mainz would be quite a good place, and Mannheim, too; the Baden Government is so harassed by the People's Party[38] and the ultramontanists that it would scarcely take any action.
Since Wilhelm mucked about my Peasant War in such a manner,[647]
think what he will do with your articles[3]!
Could you get together for me that material for a note, with citation of the sources, on the Welsh phanerogamic being[6]? I could use it just now, in a few days I shall be writing about this.
The bourgeois vandalism with regard to Leibniz's house is very common. In any case, I congratulate you on the relics.
I shall hardly likely be needing Swift before I move to London. The decision in the large towns in France is very fine. The remainder is faked and doesn't count. Regarding the way the Republicans urged the army about non, this would only have been useful if immediate action had been intended, but it is agreed that this was not the case. As things have now turned out, the soldiers will have to suffer, and 'more reliable' regiments will be sent to Paris.[612]
If you and your family wish to reconnoitre the surrounding district for a house for me, this would be very agreeable for us here. I have my house here until the end of September, so if I move at the end of August there is time enough. In addition, I have enough material to made through here, and it's easier here than in London. You know the sort of house I need: at least 4, if possible 5 bedrooms (since Pumps[3] is growing up), and apart from a study for me, two living rooms and kitchen, etc. If possible without a close dominant vis-à-vis. It would be desirable that it should not be much higher up than you live, since Lizzie has an asthmatic reluctance about hill climbing. If you find something, then I can come over. It doesn't need to be as big as your house, and smaller rooms would suffice for me.
Best greetings to all.
Your
F. E.
Your letter appeared to have been opened again, and badly stuck down with too much gum, so that the excess of gum made it adhere to another letter, and traces remained.
Do you know of an Irish grammar, or is one to be had second-hand? I would very much dislike to quote a Celtic word incorrectly, perhaps in the genitive or nominative plural — instead of nominative singular.
333. Marx to Engels. 11 May
333
MARX TO ENGELS[56]
IN MANCHESTER
[London, ] 11 MAY 1870
DEAR FRED,
I only noted from your letter today that I had forgotten to enclose the Wilhelm.* It follows herewith, ditto, letter from Bracke, etc., which I must have back before Tuesday, when I intend to be on my feet again. Mainz, Darmstadt, Mannheim[650]? Wouldn't Mannheim be best? Mainz is a Prussian fortress city.
With regard to the Welsh, I don't find the main thing in my notebooks. But this much:
The community of goods was accompanied by Celtic looseness of the marriage tie, already known in antiquity, at the same time, however, voting rights for women in the tribal assembly.' (W. Wachsmuth, 'Europäische Sittengeschichte', Zweiter Teil, Leipzig, 1833.)
Wachsmuth bases his description specifically on the laws of King Dyonwall Moelmud and Howel Ddas.b 'Leges Molmutinae. Translated by William Probert: ' THE ANCIENT LAWS OF CAMBRIA, CONTAINING THE
INSTITUTIONAL TRIADS OF D . MoELMUD, THE LAWS OF HoWEL THE GoOD,
TRIADICAL COMMENTARIES, CODE OF EDUCATION, AND THE HUNTING LAWS OF W A L E S " , London, 1823', and: 'Edward Davies, "Celtic Researches", London 1804'. I find noted in my notebooks, as curiosities:
'Precepts on ascertaining virginity. The testimony of one person suffices, e.g., that of a girl on her virginity.' 'A man who has got rid of one bed-companion because of another atones with as many denarii as are necessary to cover the bottom of the complainant. A woman who lays a plaint against a man for rape clasps his member with her left hand, lays her right upon reliquaries, and thus swears her testimony.'
'Fornication with the queen costs the double mult to the king.' The first chapter of the book on common law deals with the women. 'If his wife lay with another man and he beats her, he sacrifices his claim to indemnification... What a wife might dispose of—differing according to station — is exactly specified. The wife of a peasant (taeawgh) might only dispose of her neck-band, and might lend only her sieve, and this not further than her voice could be heard when demanding its return. The wife of a nobleman (uchelwr) could dispose of cloak, shirt, shoes, etc., but lend all her household utensils. Sufficient grounds for divorce for a wife were the man's impotence, scabies and bad breath.' Quite some lads, these Celts. But born dialecticians, everything being composed in triads. When I leave the house again I shall look up Wachsmuth on phanerogamy in the Museum.[3]
At this opportunity I have also found in my notebooks quotations from various writings on Ireland, but which you have certainly seen, or are superfluous because of better sources. One book, the title of which I cannot read properly, Cgygia or Ogygia by R. O'Flaherty, London, 1685.
Dr Charles O'Conor: Scriptores Rerum Hibernicarum. Buckin-gham (1814-1826, 4 volumes).
The antiquities and history of Ireland, by Jam. Ware, London, 1705; Ware, Two books of the writers of Ireland Dublin, 1709.[651]
In the case of Bakunin, either the transaction has broken down, or it has been arranged thus pour sauver les apparences.(1) Looking at things more closely, I discover, that Ogarev is the editor.b In the first numbers Bakunin has only one letter,c in which he acts like a stranger, attacks the editors for lack of principles, etc., puts on airs as a socialist and internationalist, etc. Yet, WITH ALL THAT, what his letter amounts to is that, in theory, all coalitions are to be condemned, but in practice, to be sure, Ogarev is right. The main thing now is to overthrow Tsarism, and for this the unification of all parties hostile to it is necessary, etc., etc. Later they will be able to scuffle with one another, etc. Thus, 'politics' are permissible for socialists in Russia, but not for the world in Western Europe!
The Russian things I am sending you today you may keep, since I have duplicate copies.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
I shall look around for the Irish grammar as soon as I can go out again.
The state of my last letter was not the fault of the post.
334. Engels to Marx. 15 May
334
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 15 May 1870 Dear Moor,
Mainz is not so bad, the Hessian Government is always at loggerheads with the Prussian Governor, and the Prussians have to declare a state of siege in the city before they can do anything. Darmstadt has too small a proletariat and, in addition, a small court, so one cannot count on anything. Mannheim, also, has a smaller proletariat than Mainz, and altogether I think it would be good to hold the congress under the noses of the Prussian soldiers. If it is broken up, then the whole show can move to Brussels; even those compromised in Prussia can get there via Strasbourg, Metz and Luxembourg in 24 hours; the others via Cologne or Saarbrücken-Luxembourg. Apropos, the International should try to obtain a footing in Luxembourg; there are many miners, tanners, etc., there. This must be done from Saarbrücken or Aachen; the committee[3] should be charged with this.
Best thanks for the Celtica.(1) I shall take a few hours to look up further details in the Chetham LIBRARY, where I shall probably find something.
Ogygia is a horribly uncritical thing; here and there there are notes of some value, since the fellow had at his disposal old writings now lost, but in order to discover this you would have to plough through Irish Codices for at least 3 years. Dr Ch. O'Conor's Scriptores are ± b good sources, but mainly later ones; but he also published the Annals of Ulster with a Latin translation and, ditto, the first volume of the Annals of the 4 Masters, and I don't know whether this is included there. But the Annals of the 4 Masters, the main work, was edited and translated by Dr O'Donovan in 1856, and I have it here; I went through the first volume yesterday.c
Ware (Sir Jam. Ware, I think judge or something of the sort under Charles I) is by far the best of the older ones; he also had available to him, in translation, old writings now lost; he wrote in Latin (Waraeus), I have him in English and Latin.
The continuous reading of Irish books, i.e., the parallel English translation, could not be stood without at least a superficial knowledge of the phonetic and inflexional laws of the language. I have discovered here a frightful Irish grammar from Anno I773,a
and ploughed through it the day before yesterday, thereby learning something, but the man himself had no idea of the real laws of Irish. The only good grammar is that by Dr John O'Donovan, mentioned above, the best Irologist of this century. When you go to the Museumb you should take it out in order to see what it would cost approximately (O'Donovan has the habit of publishing nothing except fat expensive quarto volumes): O'Donovan's Irish Grammar. In addition you might also look at:
Genealogies, Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrak, PRINTED FOR THE IRISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1844 (presumably by O'Donovan), and
Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many (ditto), to find out whether there is anything in them about social conditions, and whether these are fat expensive books: if not, and there is something in them, I shall acquire them.
There exists, further, an edition (by O'Donovan) of Leabhar nag-Ceart (BOOK OF RIGHTS), and if you could find an opportunity to take a look at it and tell me whether there is any prospect of results in it — NB. only for social conditions, everything else is of no interest to me — and whether it is an expensive de luxe edition, I would be very much obliged. On the basis of the quotations I have, there is not much in it for my purpose.
But this, I think, fairly well exhausts the relevant old literature, insofar as it has been published.
Ogarev was already an editor of Kolokol with Herzen, and is quite an ordinary bourgeois and poet. If Bakunin should really receive the money, and not Ogarev, then Ogarev will certainly be fettered to him as a controller.
In the last few days I have often been sitting at the quadrilateral desk in the small bow-window where we sat 24 years ago; I like this place very much; because of its coloured window the weather is always fine there.[480] Old Jones the librarian is still around, but he is very old and does nothing more; I haven't yet seen him there again.
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
335. Marx to Engels. 16 May
The letter from Wilhelm[648] (which is returned, enclosed, together with the Brunswick one) is really the silliest thing I have ever read. What a dumb ox! Now I am wondering what reply he will give me. At the end I advised him[633] to consider whether it were not fitting to first study something if you want to teach it.
In which PARLIAMENTARY PAPER can one see how much money is thrown away annually on the COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE ANCIENT LAWS AND INSTITUTES OF IRELAND [636]? This is a simply colossal job (in miniature). It would also be important to know how much of this money is allocated 1. as remuneration for the inactive commissioners, 2. as salaries for the actually-working UNDERSTRAPPERS, printing costs, etc. This must be given in some PARLIAMENTARY PAPER. The fellows have been drawing emoluments since 1852, and until now 2 volumes have been published! 3 LORDS, 3 judges, 3 priests, 1 general, and 1 professional Irologist, now long dead.[481]
335
MARX TO ENGELS[180]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 16 MAY 1870[654]
Dear FRED,
Enclosed — a very well-behaved screed from Wilhelm[655]! The old fool is beginning to take fright. In my last letter,[649] I told him that Borkheim was very sick; the Dr had forbidden him to do literary work for a long time even after his recovery; the continuation of Bakunin's twaddle,[629] which should never have been started, must now be stopped, etc.!
And what does the brute do? In the issue of Volksstaat that arrived today he published a personally defamatory article against Borkheim, written by the vagabond Nechayev.[656] I am really afraid this will excite Borkheim in a dangerous manner. Borkheim wrote to me the day before yesterday; he wanted to see me. I could not go because of my very foul cold and cough. But my wife was there yesterday. He is still very weak, and all excitement has specifically been prohibited by the Dr! The arrival of Volksstaat today will have caused an awful scene!
I wrote immediately to Wilhelm, the silly blockhead, and fittingly hauled him over the coals. At the same time, I mentioned that his effusions about you were 'too childish' to be answered, but he could rely upon it that his (Wilhelm's) 'private views about Hegel or ANYTHING ELSE' were a matter of indifference to you,3 ditto the circumstance 'which' and 'what assortment of studies' he (Wilhelm) 'rather despises'. The fellow's claim that he has led 'for 22 years a restless life, with no time for any leisure' is delicious. We know he spent ABOUT 15 years of the 22 in idleness.
I am sending you the Echo, which you must preserve, because of the disavowal of the FRENCH BRANCH^ also published in the Marseillaise, Internationale (Brussels), and our other organs. Circumstances were finally so favourable that we had an opportunity to give an official kick to the rabble.
Mayence! soit!c
It is un peu indiscret0 for Bracke to have had extracts from your private letter to hime published in Volksstaat. But the intention is good, and I even believe this operation was politically correct. They obviously wished thereby to take a kick at Schweitzer.
There has already been a lot in The Irishman about the scurvy IRISH Laws COMMISSION.[636] I shall try to find out the necessary about it.
If my condition doesn't quickly change so that it no longer disturbs my work, I might come for 8-14 days to Manchester.[639]
If nothing else helps, perhaps a change of air will.
Your
K. M.
336. Engels to Marx. 17 May
336
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 17 May 1870
Dear Moor,
Liebknecht will hardly send you my letter, since it is just the opposite of what Wilhelm says it is. I took special care not to use any insulting expression, but the whole letter naturally centres on the bitter FACT that Wilhelm writes under my signature on subjects about which he knows nothing (as now admitted). And this must of course 'insult him'.
Even now it is incomprehensible how he could publish Nechayev's filthy letter,[656] which consists of a series of curses, and nothing else but the very stupidest Russian Herzenite platitudes. Something like this can only be explained by his enormous indolence, which makes him struggle as hard as he can to fill up his paper3 without working himself.
To bring your 'condition' to an end, the best thing for you would be to come in the course of this week, and with Tussy. A change of air has always been good for you, and we shall see to it that you get better exercise here than there. Then, if things are bad, you can also consult Gumpert. But bring Tussy with you. Lizzie has already baked CURRANT BREAD against her arrival, and the whole house has been in jubilo since I announced I would ask you to bring her with you. If you can come tomorrow, tant mieuxh; just telegraph, no more notice is needed to have you rooms ready. Otherwise on Thursday^ It will do both of us good to march through the fields, and to laugh about the assorted humbuggery that has been abroad since I was last in London.[657] Lizzie has promised to go to bed unhesitatingly with Tussy at 11 o'clock every night — SUNDAYS ALWAYS EXCEPTED — so that this point will make no trouble either. And, finally, I feel that my 1857 Rüdesheimer is now just at the stage when it should be drunk, and for this I need your help.
Thus, either a telegram tomorrow and 'han selv'd—not with
337. Marx to Engels. 18 May
22,000 men as 'han selv' said, but still with Tussy — or then the day after tomorrow. Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
Bracke queried me about publication of the letter,[3] and set a term for my prohibition, which I allowed to pass, since I attached no importance to it.
337
MARX TO ENGELS[446]
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 18 May 1870
DEAR FRED,
On Mondayb we shall be travelling to join you for 14 days, not longer, since Tussy is interrupting all her lessons. It's no go this week, since SWEET Jennychen has holidays until Monday, and we should not leave her alone for this period.
The enclosed muck from Heinzen discloses at the tail-end — the false story about my relationship with Lassalle — who is prompting Heineke, the doughty bondsman.[658] It is OLD Hatzfeldt, probably operating through Weber junior, who deliberates in New York. Incidentally, Heineke is making a grievous mistake if he expects me to honour him with a word of rebuttal. He has been working to this end for years — to no avail!
Our French MEMBERS are demonstrating ad oculosc the French Government the difference between a political secret society and a genuine workers' association. No sooner had the government jailed all the members of the Paris, Lyons, Rouen, Marseilles etc., COMMITTEES[642] (some of them fled to Switzerland and Belgium) than committees twice as numerous announced themselves in the newspapers as their successors with the most daring and defiant
338. Engels to Marx. 19 May
declarations (and, as an added touch, with their private addresses as well). The French Government has finally done what we so long wanted it to do: transform the political question — EMPIRE or Republic — into a question de vie ou de mort(1) for the working class!
Altogether, the plebiscite is dealing the final blow to the EMPIRE! Because so many voted 'yes' for the empire avec la phrase constitutionelle,b Boustrapa[320] believes he can now unceremoniously restore the empire sans phrase, c'est à dire le régime du Décembre.c In Paris — according to all private information— la société du 10
Décembre[641] has been fully restored and is fully active.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
The transfer of the congress to Mainz — UNANIMOUSLY VOTED yesterday — will give Bakunin a fit.
338
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 19 May 1870
Dear Moor,
So Monday.d Had you come yesterday you could just as well have brought Jennychen with you; she could have slept with Tussy for the few days until Sunday, and she ought to see Manchester once before we leave here.
Bonaparte really is an incorrigible jackass. The blockhead has no conception of any sort of historic movement; all history is a JUMBLE of unconnected chance events, in which the little dodges of the old trickster play the decisive role — and what dodges! Always the same old recipe for every EMERGENCY. That he is once again organising his December 10 gang is [...]e
339. Marx to His Daughter Jenny. 31 May
Old Heinzen is really entertaining. For twenty years and even longer the same old tune, but literally, it's really moving. You only need to say: Communist, and up jumps Heinzen, like a frog in strychnine-tetanus leaps when you touch the table on which it is lying. Old Hatzfeldt's hand is unmistakable here, and the thing was certainly made in America,[658] since nobody in Germany knows Heinzen's tune, the one you must whistle to make OLD Heinzen dance. The myths about Lassalle's attempted revolution, which we caused to fail in Cologne, are just too stupid.
The behaviour of the French workers is grand. The people are now active again and are in their element; there they are masters.
Best greetings.(1)
The extant part of the letter was first Printed according to the original published abridged in Der Briefwechsel , , . , , . • b ••• zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Published in English for the first Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
time
339
MARX TO HIS DAUGHTER JENNY
IN LONDON
Manchester, 31 May 1870
My dear child,
We were beginning to fret somewhat at the obstinate London taciturnity, but your letter[659] has again cleared up the horizon. I think not that we shall stay longer than to the beginning of next week.
My cold is not yet quite gone, but the general state of health has [been] wonderfully improved consequent upon the change of air. I see Gumpert almost daily and his advice is the more valuable the less he gets paid for it.
Here things are going on pretty much in the old track. Fred is quite jolly since he has got rid of 'den verfluchten* Commerce'. His book on Irelandc—which by the by costs him a little more time than he had at first supposed — will be highly interesting. The illustrious Doppeljua who is so much up in the most recent Irish history and plays so prominent a part in it, will there find his archeological material ready cut.
Lange's bookb differs from an 'Irish stew' in that particular point that it is all sauce and no substance. This muddled meddler evidently intends to fish out some compliments from me in return for his 'sweets', but he is woefully mistaken. How much he has understood of the Capital is clearly shown by his discovery that my theory of 'value' has nothing whatever to do with the develop-ments on the Arbeitstagc etc.
Our friend Gumpert settles more and more down into a liberal, town-talk speaking, commonplace sort of fellow. What with his self-produced and with his 'inherited' family, this is hardly to be wondered at. It is too much of a good thing.
Tussy looks very blooming and is quite merry. She has happily found the live stock at Mornington Palace[660] increased by a new supply of kittens and so forth. She crossexamined Fred of course as to the 'threatening letters'; he considered it dangerous to allude to such a thing in letters conveyed by post and possibly falling under the eye of some Stieber. The true Stieber, who, I see, is eagerly busying himself at Paris to hatch a new complot, in which the 'Intern. W. Ass.' is to play the principal part and where I, as his old protégé, and 'wirklicher geheimer Oberhauptchef'd must of course put e in my appearance.
While I write these lines, damned Fred is bothering me by continual 'fragmentary' communications from the old Norse Sagas. Apropos of Norse Sagas, has Möhmchenf not assisted at K. Blind's poetical lecture Sunday last?
Little Dakyns came over Saturday evening and stayed here on Sunday. This his visit was paid to Tussy and myself. This brave gnome was horselaughing all the time over. His costume was faster than ever before—papierne Vatermörder ohne Kravatte,g a dirty white hat instead of the Scotch cap, and eine Sorte weisser Schuhe wie man sie at the seaside trägt.h At our Sunday walk— Schorlemmer and Moore belonging of course to the party — his success with the general public was more than a succès d'estime. He created quite a sensation.
And now, illustrious Doppelju, give my best compliments to Möhmchen and Lehnchen.(2) I miss here very much the Marseillaise and all news from Paris. At the Schiller Club[76] they keep Le
Temps, about the dullest of all the French papers. Also its editor-in-chief is one Nefftzer, an Alsacian.
Addio, illustrious one.
Old Nick
340. Marx to Victor Le Lubez. 14 June[661]
[Draft]
Sir,
Yours dd. 11 June has been sent me from London. I want now to be informed by you who is the informer that gave you the absurd information that I am the London Correspondent of the
Volksstaat and the author of an Article on your person. Allow me to observe that my time is spent on subjects of a more general interest.
I am Sir
Yours etc.
K. M. Mr Le Lubez.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
341. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann. 27 June[29]
Dear King Wenceslaus,3
I returned here this week after a stay of one month in Manchester, and found your letter waiting.[662]
In fact I can give you no reply as to the date of my departure, and not even to the question — which you have not asked — namely, whether I shall travel at all.
Last year I anticipated that, after the Easter Fair, I would have a second edition of my book,b and CONSEQUENTLY the takings from the first edition. You will see, however, from the enclosed letter from Meissner,' which arrived today, that all this is still a long way off.[663] (Be so kind as to send me the letter back.)
Messieurs the German professors have recently found themselves obliged to take note of me now and then, even if in a very silly way; for example, A. Wagner in a pamphlet on landed property, and Held (Bonn) in a pamphlet about the rural loan banks in the Rhine Province.d
Mr Lange (On the workers' question, etc., 2nd edition)e pays me great compliments, but with the object of increasing his own importance. Mr Lange, you see, has made a great discovery. All history may be subsumed in one single great natural law. This natural law is the phrase (—the Darwinian expression becomes, in this application, just a phrase—) 'STRUGGLE FOR LIFE', and the content of this phrase is the Malthusian law of population, or RATHER over-population. Thus, instead of analysing this 'STRUGGLE FOR LIFE' as it manifests itself historically in various specific forms of society, all that need be done is to transpose every given struggle into the phrase 'STRUGGLE FOR LIFE', and then this phrase into the Malthusian 'population fantasy'. It must be admitted that this is a very rewarding method — for stilted, mock-scientific, highfaluting ignorance and intellectual laziness.
And what this Lange has to say about the Hegelian method and my application of the same is simply childish. First, he understands rieri* about Hegel's method and, therefore, second, still less about my critical manner of applying it. In one respect he reminds me of Moses Mendelssohn. That prototype of a windbag once wrote to Lessing asking how he could possibly take 'that dead dog Spinoza'[664] au sérieuxb\ In the same way, Mr Lange expresses surprise that Engels, I, etc., take au sérieux the dead dog Hegel, after Büchner, Lange, Dr Dühring, Fechner, etc., had long agreed that they — POOR DEAR — had long since buried him. Lange is naïve enough to say that I 'move with rare freedom' in empirical matter. H e has not the slightest idea that this 'free movement in matter' is nothing but a paraphrase for the method of dealing with matter — that is, the dialectical method. My best thanks to Madame la comtesse c for her kind lines. This really does one good at a time 'when more and more of the better ones are disappearing'. But, sérieusement parlant,d I am always pleased when a few lines from your dear wife remind me of the happy times I spent in your circle.
Regarding Meissner's pressure for the second volume,[41] I was not only held u p by illness throughout the winter. I found it necessary to m u g u p on my Russian, because, in dealing with the land question, it has become essential to study Russian land-owning relationships from primary sources. In addition, in connection with the Irish land question, the English Government has published a series of BLUE BOOKS (soon concluding) about the land relations IN ALL COUNTRIES. Finally—entre nous—I would like the second edition of Vol. I first. It would simply be disturbing if this came in the middle of the ULTIMATE finalisation of Vol. II.
BEST COMPLIMENTS ON JENNY'S PART AND MY OWN TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE Kugelmann FAMILY.
Your
K. M.
342. Marx to Engels. 5 July
342
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 5 July 1870
DEAR FRED,
You must excuse the interruption in our correspondence since my return to London.[639] THERE WAS so MUCH INTERNATIONAL AND OTHER
BUSINESS PRESSING UPON ME.
Dupont, whose one child (BABY) is, for the time being, staying with his brother-in-law, the second with Serraillier, the third with him(1)—all small girls — has in the meantime received two OFFERS as sort of MANAGER or chief OVERLOOKER (in wind-music-instrument factories), one in Paris, the other in Manchester. I advised against No. I, since there he would not only soon be arrested, but also become completely absorbed IN QUARRELS with the various cliques. I strongly advised, on the other hand, No. II, despite his aversion to it. He has, therefore, accepted the offer of J. Higham, 131 Strangeways, Manchester (BRASS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS).
The difficulty is that he will have to take one child, No. II, with him immediately, and will have the two others follow him in a few weeks, so he needs a little house in Manchester, and some sort of reliable female person to look after the children and for DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT. His income for a start will be £3 WEEKLY. Could LIZZY do something directly or indirectly on this matter?
Dupont is politically a character, but privatim enormously weak. D'abordb he can stand very little liquor without getting very EXCITED. SECONDLY he is easily dominated and exploited by his company.
He will perhaps go to Manchester in the course of this week. In any case, I shall write in advance about his day of arrival.
From the enclosed letter from Meissner[663] you will see how things are there. I had a pressing letter from Kugelmann, who will be leaving for Karlsbadc on 12 August, and is waiting for my declaration before renting accommodation, to which I replied with Meissner's letter. I reminded him that Meissner had spoken in his presence of certain prospects for a second edition,d and payment for the Easter Fair; and I added that, UNDER PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, I could not say either when I would go to Karlsbad, or whether I would go at all. HENCE his enclosed letter. I have not yet replied, since we are still awaiting an answer from Dublin concerning O'Donovan Rossa's photograph.
Lafargue had notified me that a young Russian, Lopatin, would bring a letter of introduction from him. Lopatin called on Saturday(2); I invited him for Sunday (he was with us from 10 O'CLOCK until 12 at night),[665] and he returned on Monday to Brighton, where he is living.
He is still very young, was two years in the lock-up, after this 8 months fortress confinement in the Caucasus, from which he escaped. He is the son of an impoverished nobleman, and had to earn his living at the University of St Petersburg by private tutoring. Today is living very meagrely from translations for Russia. Lives in Brighton, since there he can bathe in the sea 2-3 times a day, gratis, at a certain distance from the official bathing beach.
A very wide-awake critical brain, cheerful character, stoical, like a Russian peasant who simply accepts what he gets. Weak point: Poland. Here he talks just like an Englishman — SAY AN ENGLISH CHARTIST OF THE OLD SCHOOL — does about Ireland.
He told me the whole story about HeHaeBi>b (23 years) is an abominable lie. HenaeB-b has never been in a Russian prison; the Russian Government never undertook an assassinat against him, etc.
The story is this. HenaeB-b (one of Bakunin's few agents in Russia) belonged to a secret society. Another young man, X,c rich and enthusiastic, supported this society with money via HenaeB-b. ONE FINE MORNING X tells Henaeß-b that he will not give another kopeck, since he does not know what is being done with the money. Whereupon, Mr HenaeB-b suggested to his secret society (perhaps because he could not account for the money) that X be murdered, since he might change his views at a future date, and could become a traitor. He really did murder him. He is thus sought by the government simply as a murderer vulgaris.
In Geneva, Lopatin d'abord took HenaeBT> personally to task (about his lies), and he excused himself with the sensational political usefulness for the so-called cause. Lopatin then told the story to Bakunin, who told him that as a 'bon vieillard'd he had believed it all. Bakunin then challenged Lopatin to repeat the story in the presence of HenaeBij. Lopatin immediately went with Bakunin to HenaeB-b where the scene was repeated. HenaeB-b remained silent. All the time Lopatin was in Geneva, HeHaeBT. remained very unobtrusive, no longer saying a word. Scarcely had Lopatin left for Paris, and the whole buffoonery started again. Shortly after this, Lopatin received an insulting letter from Bakunin about the affair. He replied in even more insulting terms. Result: Bakunin wrote a Pater-peccavi(3) letter (in Lopatin's possession here), but—il est un bon vieillard crêduleb\ {En passant:c Lopatin says that whole sentences written by Borkheim are completely unintelligible and make complete nonsense in Russian, not only grammatically wrong but 'nothing at all'! And that fool Borkheim has, in the meantime, as he told me before my meeting with Lopatin, sent his bungling work through our friend Eichhoff in Berlin to a German there — who is used by the Berlin police as a Russian interpreter — in order to obtain from him a certificate that he can write Russian. The talent of our Gaudissart for unconscious comedy is really UNRIVALLED!)
HepHMiueBCKiH,(4) I learned from Lopatin, was sentenced in 1864 to 8 years travaux forcés* in the Siberian mines; so he still has two years to slave. The first court was decent enough to declare that there was absolutely nothing against him, and that the alleged intriguing, plotting secret letters were obvious FORGERIES (which they were). But the Senate, on the Tsar's orders, most graciously reversed this verdict, and sent off to Siberia this cunning man who, as the judgement said 'was so clever that he cast his writing in a legally unexceptionable form, but nevertheless publicly dispensed poison therein'. Voilà la justice russe.e
Flerovsky is in a better situation. He is only in administrative exile in a miserable little hole between Moscow and Petersburg!
You suspected rightly that Flerovsky is a pseudonym. But Lopatin says that the name, although not originally Russian, occurs quite frequently amongst Russian clerics (namely MONKS, who think it is the Russian translation of Fleury, and who are just as keen on sweet-scented names as are the German Jews). Lopatin was originally a naturalist by professional training. He has also been concerned in commercial business, and it would be a good thing if one could find something for him in this line.f I shall speak about it with Borkheim and Pohl. About Paris, etc., very soon.
Your
Moor
343. Engels to Marx. 6 July
Apropos. Jennychen would like to know whether she should not rather name you as the author of the NOTE.[3]
A n d — she is very obstinate — she will not allow me to change a few words in the manuscript without your special permission!
MY BEST COMPLIMENTS TO MRS LIZZY.
[Postscript by Marx's daughter Jenny]
5 July 1870
DEAR Engels, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR LETTER AND THE MOST INTERESTING NOTES. I ONLY HOPE MR Risse' WOULD INTERLARD THEM WITH THE Judenkirschen b OF WHICH HE SEEMS TO HAVE A PLENTIFUL STOCK ON HAND. FOR O ' D o n o v a n R o s s a ' S PORTRAIT I HAVE WRITTEN TO PigOtt. IN CASE A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH IS NOT TO BE HAD, OF COURSE, I CAN AS YOU SAY, SEND Kugelmann THE PRINT WHICH APPEARED IN THE IRISHMAN. WITH MANY THANKS, I REMAIN
AFFECTIONATELY YOURS
Jenny
343
ENGELS T O MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 6 July 1870 Dear Moor,
Your instructions regarding Dupont c are so uncertain that I can do absolutely nothing. I should rent him a COTTAGE — but furnished or unfurnished? You say nothing on this point, but this is the main thing. In addition, a reliable housemaid is damned difficult to drum u p in a hurry and, third, Lizzie cannot leave the house because of her knee which, as a result of her unrest and impatience, is not getting better as quickly as it should.
Under the circumstances, Dupont's plan to come here with one child right away appears to me completely impracticable. I should
a F. Engels, Notes for the Preface to a Collection of Irish Songs. - b Jewish wit - c See this volume, p. 529.
think that his brother-in-law or Serraillier would be able to accommodate the 3rd child, too, for 8-14 days; in this case it would be better for him to come here alone right away, then I could immediately go round with him and get a house and, in the meantime, we could make enquiries about a woman. Since he will have to bring the children here, or have them brought by somebody, it makes no difference if there are 2 or 3 of them.
If this is agreed, write to me immediately, so that I can get him quarters near his workshop, LODGINGS for a week with board if he wants it — I assume he will only want a BEDROOM without the expense of a SITTING ROOM?—and when he will be coming. On this I expect an immediate reply, so I know what I have to do. But, as I said, to bring the child with him right away would be absolute nonsense; it would cost him much more money, and would be in his way everywhere during the first few days. Where should a woman spring from all of a sudden, if he doesn't simply take the first one to offer?
Quoad" Karlsbad,6 I am, as I said, in favour of you going there this summer. I can make £40 available to you for the journey. The cure is absolutely essential for you, even if you cannot completely avoid Kugelmann and his fervent fire thereby. C. Roesgen was also there, I saw him yesterday; he said it is not expensive there, particularly since 'there is no opportunity to spend money' during the cure; the cure did a lot of good to his liver (which is in a fine state compared to yours), and he looks rather thinner but much healthier. So make up your MIND; apart from Kugelmann you will certainly find other interesting liver patients there, and on your way back you will travel via Hamburg and put pressure on Meissner. So take a quick decision and leap with eyes closed into the hot springs of Karlsbad, and the equally warm admiration of Kugelmann. NB. Because of possible passport difficulties on the Austrian frontier, it might be a good thing if you were to travel in the company of your personal physician.
Lopatin's stories about the other pyccKLH 4Î>Aac are very interesting and it is very useful to know them. That HeHaeB-bd
should turn out to be just a common blackguard is quite desirable.
Jennychen does not need to name me as the author of the notee
since Kugelmann knows my handwriting quite well; but she can deal with it as she will, and as far as alterations are concerned, do what you like with it. There will probably be no refuge from the Jewish wit to which she refers.
Apropos Dupont. Lizzie has her eyes on somebody quite suitable for him if only we can get hold of her, but I fear we shall have n o information on this before Sunday or Monday. It is her cousin Anna Kane, a person who is not young, not pretty, but honest to the backbone. Tussy knows her; but we shall scarcely discover before Friday where she is at the moment, and will probably not be able to see her before the end of this week or the beginning of next.
I found and looked through the old Welsh laws [3] in the official RECORD COMMISSION edition. There are quite jolly things in it. If a man discovers, on his nuptial night, that his wife is not a virgin, but lies with her until the morning, then nothing of hers falls to him, sed si, postquam illam vitiatam deprehenderit, surrexerit ad pronubos, pene erecto, et testaretur eis se illam vitiatam invenisse, et non concubuerit cum ilia ad crastinum usque; ilia nihil ab eo in crastinum habebit. Si mammae et crines et menses apparuerint, tunc lex pronuntiat neminem posse certe scire num virgo sit necne b and thus she must produce 7 compurgators, including her parents and brothers and sisters. If she will not or cannot do this
LET HER SHIFT BE CUT OFF AS HIGH AS HER HIP, AND LET A YEARLING STEER BE PUT IN
HER HAND, HAVING HIS TAIL GREASED WITH TALLOW, AND IF SHE CAN HOLD HIM BY HIS
TAIL, LET HER TAKE HIM IN LIEU OF HER SHARE OF THE argyVTeU (PARAPHERNALIA),
AND IF SHE CANNOT HOLD HIM, LET HER BE WITHOUT ANYTHING.
Now we have 'To BE LET' in the window. Haven't you found anything yet?
What is the catalogue of the London LIBRARY like? This is very important for me, so that I know what I can leave unread here.
Best greetings to you all.
Your
F. E.
a Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, volumes I-II. - b but if, as soon as he discovers she is damaged, he goes to the marriage arrangers with erect penis, and it is testified by them that he found her damaged and did not lie with her until the morning, she will on the next day receive nothing from him. If breasts, hair and menstruation are present, the law proclaims that nobody can know with certainty whether she is a virgin.
345. Engels to Marx. 7 July
344. Marx to Hermann Lopatin. 6 July[666]
The occupation of a translator is abominable; commerce will give you a great deal. A greater chance to use your free time for the study and propaganda...
345
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 7 July 1870 Dear Moor,
I had to write to you yesterday about Dupont(1) in all haste, and without being able to consider the case properly with Lizzie; I had been busy in town the whole day, and in the evening there was a BALLOT at the club, so I could only discuss the business properly with Lizzie later; and it thus turned out that there is no reason to burden either Serraillier or Dupont's brother-in-law with the girl, for it will be hard enough for them to look after the other children; the child can sleep perfectly well with Mary Ellenb and will not inconvenience us in any way. Dupont can also stay with me for the first few days, until we have got him fixed up to some extent, and it will be much better if I do this together with him, rather than alone, without having him along. Lizzie says she has bedding enough, without that used by Mary Ellen during her scarlet fever, which I naturally would not like to have used yet.
346. Marx to Engels. 8 July
When I wrote to you yesterday morning I had no way of knowing this yet, but so that you might receive today other news in addition to yesterday's letter, I telegraphed you this morning:
D u p o n t ' s LITTLE GIRL WELCOME TO STAY WITH US, DIRECT THEM BOTH TO MY
HOME, ADVISE TIME OF ARRIVAL.
I hope you received this telegram before further consultations with Dupont. You must persuade him that he should not hesitate to accept my offer (if it is necessary, i.e., the persuasion), he is making things easier not only for himself but for me too, by coming to me right away with the little one. So request him in my name to do as I suggest, and just let me know when he will be arriving so I can meet him at the station.
Best greetings.
Your
F. E.
346
MARX T O ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 8 July 1870 Damn heat!
DEAR FRED,
After receipt of your telegram I informed Dupont of the necessary. He is leaving on Monday," 11 o'clock, from Euston
STATION.
I would recommend you to let the child sleep with him for the short time he'll be there. Since the sickness and death of the mother there has been a certain neglect and, owing to school attendance, the possibility of creepy-erawlies on her head. At least it appears so to the female section here.
Tomorrow I'll send you the FRENCH PAPERS with the trial proceed-
a 11 July ings.[667] I must have them back as soon as possible. Little Jew Frankel3 has won laurels. Both with the accusésh and in the newspapers etc., you will note the tendency to claim for themselves (Paris) the invention of the Internationale.
I'll go and see Beesly about the London catalogue tomorrow.
Salut.
Your
K. M. (Verte)c
Jenny has still had no reply from Ireland, apart from the enclosed letter from Pigott.d The fellow writes as if he were replying to an ADVERTISEMENT. Jennychen is TOO gentille for him. // lui faut" THE FEROCIOUS IRISH GIRL. If FOREIGNERS here are, in general, prejudiced against the Irish, aren't narrow-minded nationalists like Pigott responsible?
347. Marx to Hermann Jung. 14 July[668]
* Dear Jung, Enclosed the Programme. The questions are arranged in such an order as will facilitate the business of next Congress. You'll understand my meaning.
Yours truly *
K. M.
(1) On the necessity of abolishing the public debt. Discussion on the right of indemnity to be accorded.
(2) The relations between political action and the social movement of the working class.
(3) Practical measures for converting landed property into public property (see the note).
(4) On the conversion of currency banks into national banks. (5) Conditions of cooperative production on a national scale. (6) On the necessity for the working class to keep general statistics of labour in accordance with the resolutions of the Geneva Congress of 1866.
(7) Reconsideration by the congress of the question of measures to abolish war.
Note to point (3): The General Council of Belgium has proposed this question:
'Practical measures to set up agricultural sections within the International and to achieve solidarity between the proletarians in agriculture and the proletarians in other industries.'
The General Council of the International Association believes that this question is inherent in point (3).
* The following must not be published but only communicated by letter to the different sections.*
Confidential notice to the different sections.
(1) The General Council requests that the different sections give their delegates formal instructions on the opportunity of changing the seat of the General Council for the year 1870-71.
(2) In the event that the change were to be decided upon, the General Council would propose Brussels as the seat of the General Council for the same year.
APPENDICES
1
Endnotes
[511] On 5 January 1870, Marx was a member of the General Council delegation to the funeral of Robert Shaw, a house-painter and member of the Genera] Council. The obituary Marx had written on the instruction of the Council was published in the Belgian newspaper L'Internationale, No. 53, 16 January 1870 (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 92).—406
[513] Engels left for Barmen to visit his mother in late December 1869, and returned to Manchester on 6 January, 1870.— 407, 548
[514] Apparently a reference to Ollivier's liberal ministry's assuming office in France on 2 January 1870. In Germany, this event was regarded as a step towards normalising relations between France and the North German Confederation.— 407
[515] Engels refers to Fritz Mende's book Herr J. B. von Schweitzer und die Organisation des Lassalle'schen Allgemeinen] deutschen Arbeitervereins, Leipzig, 1869. Mende headed a small group of Lassalleans who had split off from the General Association of German Workers (see Note 104) under the influence of Sophie von Hatzfeldt and formed the Lassallean General Association of German Workers in 1867. In 1872, it virtually ceased to exist.—408
[118] Engels refers to the resolution of the Communist League's Central Authority in London of 15 September 1850 (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 625-29) passed as a result of the adventurist activities of the Willich-Schapper faction which transferred the powers of the Central Authority to the Cologne district authority. The Communist League—the first German mid international communist proletarian organisation set up under the lea:jershi';; of Marx and Engels in early June 1847 in London and operating until ;852. Its programme and organisational structure were evolved with the direct participation of Marx and Engels. On the instruction of the League's Second Congress held on 29 November-8 December 1847, which unanimously approved the principles of scientific communism elaborated by Marx and Engels, the two men wrote the League's programme, Manifesto of the Communist Party, published in February 1848 (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 477-519). During the 1848-49 revolution, the Communist League was the organisational centre and vanguard of the revolutionary movement in Germany. After the defeat of the revolution, the Communist League was restructured in 1849-50 and continued working. The 'Address of the Central Authority to the League' written by Marx and Engels in March 1850 (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 277-87) summed up the results of the 1848-49 revolution and emphasised the need to set up an independent proletarian party; it also developed the idea of permanent revolution. The decision mentioned above was adopted as a result of the dissent, which became more acute in the summer of 1850, over the tactics to be adopted in order to protect the workers from the influence of the Willich-Schapper faction, which tried to make the League adopt an adventurist policy of starting revolution in total disregard of the objective laws and the situation prevailing in Germany and other European countries. The faction's activities gave the police an excuse to stage provocative acts against the Communist League. However, the transfer of the Central Authority to Cologne had certain undesirable consequences: the Cologne district authority proved incapable of exercising leadership over the entire League; moreover, the transfer had put the Central Authority in danger of police reprisals. In fact, the police persecution and the arrests of May 1851 put an end to the work of the League in Germany. On 17 November 1852, soon after the Communist Trial in Cologne, the League dissolved itself on Marx's suggestion, but its members continued their propaganda and revolutionary work. The Communist League had played a major historical role as a school for proletarian revolutionaries and the embryo of a proletarian party, the forerunner of the International Working Men's Association.— 80, 140, 397
[519] Marx read in .Russian Herzen's book Prison and Exile (London, 1854; published under the pen-name of Iskander) which belonged to Engels and contained his marginal notes. On page 196 Marx wrote: 'Finished 9 January 1870'. The copy is kept at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.— 411
[48] This letter was first published in English in an abridged form in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters on 'Capital', London, New Park Publications, 1983.—26, 28, 30, 32, 38, 45, 55, 84, 160, 411
[521] Land. League—a reference to the Land Tenure Reform Association founded in July 1869 on the initiative of John Stuart Mill. Its stated purpose was to restore the small peasantry by renting plots of land to the unemployed.—412
[4 3] The first German edition of Volume One of Capital (1867) considers the changes in the structure of capital mentioned here in the c) section of Chapter VI, 'Das allgemeine Gesetz der Kapitalistischen Accumulation'. Corresponding to this section in the second (1872) and subsequent German editions of Volume One, is Chapter XXIII of Part VII. Corresponding to this material in the English edition of 1887 edited by Engels is Chapter XXV, Part VII, 'The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation' (see present edition, Vol. 35).—24
[322] Die Zukunft wrote about this statement by Schweitzer on 2 April 1869: 'It should be noted that Herr von Schweitzer had earlier stated unambiguously that if even the most insignificant minority should refuse to grant him confidence, he would immediately resign. It seems, however, that he changed his mind again after the voting.'—255
[526] The private letter from Perret to Jung mentioned here was dated 4 January 1870, like the official letter. The excerpt that follows has also been preserved as a copy made by Marx's daughter Jenny. The last passage of the excerpt was copied by Marx.—413
[51] In his letter to Liebknecht, which has not come down to us (see Engels' letter to Marx of 13 March 1868, present edition, Vol. 42), as well as in his review of Volume One of Capital for the Demokratisches Wochenblatt published on 21 and 28 March 1868, Engels advised the worker deputies to make 'themselves thoroughly conversant with' Capital, which would supply them with the necessary material for the debate on new handicraft trades Regulations in the Reichstag (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 336). The draft regulations were discussed in the Reichstag in the spring of 1869 and were approved on 29 May (see Note 324).—30
[445] Pale—the name of an English medieval colony in Ireland established as a result of the seizure by the Anglo-Norman feudal lords of the island's south-eastern part in the 12th century. The colony, whose boundaries were fortified (hence the name), served as the base for incessant wars against the population of the free part of Ireland which ended in the 16th-17th centuries with the conquest of the entire country.— 363, 415
[33] This letter was published in English for the first time in an abridged form in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Correspondence, 1846-1895, London, Lawrence LTD, [1934].—16, 20, 89, 152, 154, 163, 235, 306, 342, 353, 362, 369, 387, 418
[580] Marx refers to the General Council meeting of 15 March 1870. He had not attended the Council meetings since 11 January because of illness.— 459
[486] A writ of Habeas Corpus—the name given in English judicial procedure to a document enjoining the appropriate authorities to present an arrested person before court on the demand of the persons interested to check the legitimacy of the arrest. Having considered the reasons for the arrest, the court either frees the arrested person, sends him back to prison or releases him on bail or guarantee. The procedure, laid down by an Act of Parliament of 1679, does not apply to persons accused of high treason and can be suspended by decision of Parliament. The British authorities frequently made use of this exception in Ireland.—391, 394, 419
[531] Engels is referring to the German translation of the work by P. Lilienfeld Land and Freedom (AnAHeHcfeAb/t, 3eMJin u eonn), which appeared in St. Petersburg in 1868. The translation, 'Land und Freiheit', was published in: J. Eckardt, Russlands ländische Zustände seit Aufhebung der Leibeigenschaft, Leipzig, 1870.— 419, 426
[498] A reference to the letter from Klein and Moll to Engels of 3 December 1869. They wrote about the financial difficulties encountered by the Solingen cooperative for the production of steel and iron goods (see Note 330) and requested Engels for assistance. Inscribed on the letter in Engels' hand is: 'Answered on 8 February 1870. Fifty thaler sent by registered mail, with the interest to be added to the cooperative's reserve fund'.— 395, 396, 420
[532] A reference to the revolutionary events that took place in Elberfeld in May 1849. The city Committee of Public Safety appointed Engels supervisor of all works to build defensive works and barricades, and commander of the artillery. Local bourgeoisie, who feared that Engels' authority might become too great, demanded that the Committee issued an order for his arrest. The Solingen workers, with whom Engels had arrived in Elberfeld, and also the workers of Elberfeld were outraged by the bourgeoisie's behaviour and resolutely rose to his defence. Unwilling to be the cause of a split in the insurgents' camp, Engels left Elberfeld for Cologne on 15 May. He gave a detailed account of these events in his report 'Elberfeld' to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 300, 17 May 1849 (see present edition, Vol. 9, pp. 447-49), and in his work 'The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution' (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 159-71).—420
[104] T } ^ General Association of German Workers—a political organisation of German workers founded in Leipzig on 23 May 1863, at a meeting of workers' societies. Its foundation was an important step in the advancement of an independent nation-wide working-class movement in Germany and promoted the workers' emancipation from the ideological domination of the liberal bourgeoisie. However, Lassalle, who had been elected chairman, and his followers chose to direct the Association's activities along reformist lines, restricting it to a public campaign for universal suffrage. One of the items on the programme was the establishment of production cooperatives financed by the state, which were expected to resolve social contradictions. The Lassallean leadership of the Association supported the Prussian government's policy of the unification of Germany from above, through dynastic wars. Thanks to the experience of the working-class movement, and especially the International, and supported by Marx and Engels, the more advanced section of the Association began to drift away from the Lassallean dogmas. The Lassallean leaders, who were afraid to lose their influence among the workers, were forced to manoeuvre. The programme of the Hamburg Congress of the Association (which in its final version appeared in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 98, 21 August 1868) contained points that went against Lassalle's doctrine, i.e., advocated complete political freedom, positively assessed Marx's Capital, and urged the international cooperation of the working class. In the letter 'To the President and Executive Committee of the General Association of German Workers" (see present edition, Vol. 21), a reply to the invitation which had been extended to him, Marx gave his opinion of the programme and, as he remarked in a letter to Engels of 26 August, congratulated the members of the Association on 'having abandoned Lassalle's programme' (see this volume, p. 90). The Hamburg Congress (22-26 August 1868) adopted important decisions: it approved the strike movement in principle, unanimously acknowledged that 'Marx had rendered outstanding services to the working class with his work Capital', and pointed to the necessity for joint action by the workers of different countries. In fact, however, the Lassallean leaders continued to oppose its affiliation with the International and adhered to their former standpoint. At the Gotha Congress (May 1875), the General Association of German Workers merged with the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party (the Eisenachers) founded in 1869 and headed by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. The united party assumed the name of the Socialist Workers' Party.—73, 75, 98, 105, 115, 117, 132, 134, 358, 420
[466] Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, a leader of the Irish national liberation movement, who was under arrest at the time, was elected to the House of Commons as member for Tipperary on 25 November 1869. An amnesty in Italy—Engels means a partial amnesty announced in Italy in November 1869 covering individual categories of political offences, specifically, service misdemeanors in the National Guard.— 373, 387, 420, 548
[534] 584 Excerpts from this letter were first published in English in: Marx K., Engels F., Correspondence. 1846-1895, London [1934]; and in: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence. 1844-1877 edited by Fritz J. Raddatz, translated from the German by Ewald Osers, Boston, Toronto, 1981.—422
[516] On 10 January 1870, Prince Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte murdered Victor Noir, a reporter on the republican newspaper La Marseillaise, in his house. Noir visited Pierre Napole'on as a second of the Blanquist Pascal Grousset, also a La Marseillaise reporter, who had challenged the prince to a duel. The murder was committed a few days after the coming into office of Ollivier's liberal ministry, which the liberal bourgeoisie expected to introduce a number of reforms. The murder of Noir provoked an outburst of indignation in democratic quarters and bolstered the republican movement in France.— 409, 423, 553
[530] The first attempt to translate Marx's book The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte into French was made by Keller in December 1869, who interrupted his work on the French translation of Capital (see Note 441). Keller's work remained unfinished. On the first publication of the book in French see Note 303.—419
[324] When under discussion during the spring of 1869, the Bill on regulations for handicraft trades in the North German Reichstag was severely criticised by the working-class deputies. Following Engels' directions (see Note 51), on 18 March Bebel demanded that factory work be subjected to some sort of reglamenta-tion, i.e., that a ten-hour working day be introduced, work on Sundays prohibited, factory inspection organised and freedom of association granted to trade unions (see Die Zukunft, No. 67, 20 March 1869). Of the numerous proposed amendments, only Bebel's suggestion that 'workers' books' be abolished was adopted. On 29 May the Bill was passed (see 'Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstages der Norddeutschen Bundes. I. Legislatur-Periode-Session 1869', I. Bd. Berlin, 1869, S. 114-19, 124 and 146-48). Reporting to the General Council on 13 April 1869 about the speeches of the worker deputies at the North German Reichstag, Marx mentioned Bebel's speech in particular (see The General Council of the First International, 1868-1870. Minutes, Moscow, 1974, pp. 81-82).—255, 274
[537] Marx is referring to an item that appeared in La Marseillaise on 2 February 1870, and was inspired by Blind. It dealt with the fact that in 1849, Blind was unlawfully arrested in France and put into prison, although as an official representative of the revolutionary Baden government he enjoyed diplomatic immunity. The item contained a demand for an amnesty for Blind as an alleged former member of the German National Assembl) and a diplomatic representative of the Frankfurt Parliament. In actual fact, Karl Blind and Jacob Friedrich Schütz (Blind wrote Schurz, since that name was better known belonging as it did to a Brigadier General of the Northern States of America, subsequently the American Secretary for Home Affairs) had never been members of the National Assembly. Schütz had been sent to Paris as a chargé d'affaires of the Palatinate to establish diplomatic relations with France, buy munitions, and recruit commanding officers. On the German National Assembly, see Note 256.—425
[535] Probably a reference to the book by P. Lanfrey, Histoire de Napoléon I, Tomes I-IV, Paris, 1867-1870. Excerpts from Chapter VII, Volume IV, 'Le Guet-apens de Bayonne', were printed in La Cloche, Nos. 44-46, 1-3 February 1870.—423, 426
[539] A reference to the article by Alfred Naquet featured by La Marseillaise, No. 43, on 30 January 1870: 'La Revolution et la science. De la fabrication du coton-poudre et de son application, soit comme poudre de guerre, soit comme poudre de mine'.—426
[631] On 12 April 1870, the General Council instructed Marx and Dupont to draw up a protest, on behalf of the International, concerning the harsh verdict brought in against the participants in the March strike at Eugène Schneider's metal works in Creuzot. However, the large-scale police reprisals against members of the International which began in France in late April forced the General Council to revise its plans and replace the protest with a leaflet, written by Marx, 'Concerning the Persecution of the Members of the French Sections. Declaration of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association' (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 127).— 497
[536] A reference to Perret's letter-to Jung of 4 January 1870. It was quoted by Marx in his letter to De Paepe, 24 January 1870 (see this volume, p. 413).— 424, 426
[40] After the first publication of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
[525] Even before the Romance Federal Council had received the circular letter 'The General Council to the Federal Council of Romance Switzerland' (see Note 507), it managed to change the composition of the editorial board of L'Égalité. After the Bakuninists had withdrawn, the newspaper began to support the policy of the General Council. The report on the withdrawal of seven members from L'Egalité editorial board ('Aux sections romands') appeared in the newspaper on 8 January 1870, No. 2 and on 15 January the next issue (No. 3) carried a statement by the editors themselves. It was signed, among others, by J. Ph. Becker, who prior to April 1870 vacillated in his attitude to the Bakuninists. Soon, however, he went back on his decision to withdraw.—412, 430
[42] In the first manuscript of the third book of Capital written by Marx in 1864-65, the entire text is divided into seven long chapters. After Marx's death, while preparing the manuscript for the press, Engels substituted this division by division into parts. In Volume Three of Capital, published by Engels in 1894, the chapter mentioned in the letter corresponds to Part II 'Conversion of Profit into Average Profit' (see present edition, Vol. 37).—24
[543] A reference to the events connected with the decision of the French National Assembly to withdraw Rochefort's deputy's mandate for his appeal to rise against the Empire after the murder of Victor Noir, reporter from La Marseillaise, by Prince Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte (see notes 516 and 553). Flourens was an organiser of meetings and assemblies for the defence of Rochefort. One of such meetings was to be held on 7 February 1870, on the premises of La Marseillaise editorial offices, but Rochefort was arrested when entering the room. The initiative passed to Flourens, who immediately announced that the government had been overthrown, and declared uninterrupted revolution. Assisted by those present, he arrested the police commissary present at the meeting, led the people out into the street, and they made for Belleville. Sixty people actually got there. Flourens hoped to use the assistance of a number of junior officers to seize arms at the Prince Eugene's barracks and the Belleville Theatre, where rifles were kept. However, Flourens' plan fell through. The liaison men failed in their task and workers did not come to the assistance, and in the end only Flourens and one young man remained at the barricade, leaving it late at night. By morning, it was taken by soldiers.—431
[344] The report of the General Council meeting of 4 May 1869 published in The Bee-Hive, No. 395, 8 May 1869, stated that the General Council had decided to translate the address 'The Belgian Massacres' into four languages to make it known throughout the world.— 275
[545] A reference to the separate Peaces of Basle of 1795 signed by the French Republic on the one hand, and Prussia and Spain on the other. The signing of these treaties isolated Britain and Austria and led to the disintegration of the first anti-French coalition which had included Britain, Austria, Spain and Prussia.—432
[546] ]viarx touched on these issues in a number of his works. See, for instance, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Chapter 1 (present edition, Vol. 29); The Economic Manuscripts of 1857-58, § 1 'Production' (present edition, Vol. 28); also in Volume One of Capital (present edition, Vol. 35, Part I, Chapter One).—434
[547] The theory that the Russians are descendants of the Mongols was advanced by Franciszek Duchinski in his works published in 1854-61, specifically Les origines slaves. Pologne et Ruthénie, Paris, 1861. H. Martin expounded this theory in his work La Russie et VEurope, Paris, 1866, which was translated into German by Kinkel in 1869.—435
[548] Under the treaty of 30 March 1867, Russia's territories in North America (Alaska) passed over to the USA on payment of $7,200,000 (11 million roubles by contemporary exchange rate).—435
[49] In his letter of 29 April 1868, Johann Baptist Schweitzer requested Marx to define the position of the workers' party on the bill on reducing taxes for pig iron to be discussed in the Reichstag. Enclosed with the letter were the clippings 'Jahresbericht der Handelskammer von Elberfeld und Barmen' and 'Ein Circular der Herren Fabrikanten Funcke und Hück' (Annual Reports of the Elberfeld and Barmen Chambers of Commerce and the Circular of Messrs Factory Owners Funcke and Hück) (Hagen, 23 April). Marx quoted them when drafting a reply to Schweitzer. Having received Engels' notes on this question (see p. 29 of this volume) Marx replied to Schweitzer probably on 7 May (the letter has not been found). In his article 'An die Mitglieder des Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeitervereins (die Herabsetzung der Eisenzölle betreffend)' published by Der Social-Demokrat on 13 May 1868, Schweitzer referred to Marx as 'the outstanding scientific authority of our trend'. The article also reprinted the above-mentioned documents in full. In his letter to Marx of 13 May 1868, in which this article was enclosed, Schweitzer thanked Marx for 'precious judgement'.— 26, 28, 30
[550] On 8 March 1870, using its right of an arbiter in conflicts between the International's sections (see Note 508), the General Council examined the Sub-Committee's report and ruled on the conflict that had emerged in Lyons between the old Lyons Section represented by Schettel and other persons who stood close to Left-wing republicans, and the group headed by the Bakuninist Albert Richard. The General Council found the accusations groundless, and approved Richard's appointment as Corresponding Secretary of the International Working Men's Association. The statement made by the General Council stressed the need to be careful and avoid personal animosities fraught with conflict, and to concentrate all the strength and all the energy for the speedy triumph of the principles of the International Working Men's Association.— 437, 480
[551] In February 1870, three candidates stood for Parliament in Southwark: Beresford (Conservative Party), Odger (a workers' candidate), and Waterlow (Liberal Party). They received 4,686, 4,382 and 2,966 \otes respectively.—437
[544] Engels is referring to the Irish Land Bill, which was discussed in the British Parliament in the first half of 1870. Submitted by Gladstone on 15 February 1870 for the British Government on the pretext of assisting Irish tenants, it contained so many provisos and restrictions that it actually left the basis of big landownership by the English landlords in Ireland intact. It also preserved their right to raise rents and to drive tenants off the land, stipulating only that the landlords pay compensation to the tenants for land improvement, and instituting a definite judicial procedure for this. The Land Act was passed in August 1870. The landlords sabotaged the implementation of the Act in every way and found loopholes in it. The Act greatly promoted the concentration of farms in Ireland into big estates and the ruination of small Irish tenants.—432, 437, 456
[553] The Russian Railway Loan bonds worth £12 mln were released for sale by Lionel Nathan Rothschild in Paris on 27 January 1870. This was reported, specifically, by Moskovskiye Vedomosty, No. 11, 27(15) January 1870.—438
[554] This letter was written by Marx on the back of Borkheim's letter to him of 19 February 1870. Borkheim informed Marx about his intention to translate Flerovsky's book (H. GUepoBCKifi, TJonoxeHue paôouaeo wiacca et Pocciu) into English and requested Marx to write a preface to it.—440
[555] A reference to Peter Imandt's letter to Marx of 18 February 1870, in which he asked for Marx's advice concerning the Prussian Government's demand, lodged through the Consul of the North German Confederation, that he pay the fees for the course of lectures on theology he attended at Bonn University in 1844-45. Before replying to Imandt, Marx consulted Engels. (For Marx's reply to Peter Imandt, see this volume, pp. 443-44.)—440, 443
[356] In May 1869, Peter Le Néve Foster, Secretary of the Society of Arts and Trades Board of Directors, sent out letters to a number of persons, including Marx, requesting their consent to be elected to the Society. Marx's letter of 28 May 1869 was a reply to this proposal. On 30 June 1869, the Society's general meeting considered 132 candidatures and took a vote, as a result of which Marx was elected a member. To be admitted, a person had to have three members, at least one being his personal acquaintance, to back his candidature. For Marx, this was Peter Lund Simmonds, a Dane residing in England, a well-known political writer and author of numerous works on botany and agriculture. Marx's admittance to the Society of Arts and Trades signified recognition by British scientific quarters of his merits as a scholar and political writer. The Society of Arts and Trades, which was founded in 1754, set itself the philanthropic and educational goal of 'promoting the arts, trades and commerce'. Its social composition was varied: its managing bodies included both members of the aristocracy, patrons of the Society, and representatives of a broad cross-section of bourgeoisie and bourgeois intellectuals; among the members were also representatives of trade unions. In the 1860s, the Society's membership was in excess of 4,000. In 1853-54, as the mass strike movement began to grow, the Society tried to act as an intermediary between the workers and the manufacturers seeking to take the edge off the class struggle. Marx sharply criticised this position and even called the organisation the ' "Society of Arts" and tricks' (see present edition, Vol. 12. p. 612). Marx's admission to the Society gave him greater access to scientific literature to be found in the Society's library, including its extremely large collection of works by the 17th-19th century economists. Many of them he used when working on Capital. He was particularly interested in recent research in the field of economics and natural sciences, specifically, chemistry and agriculture, whose results were published in the Society's journal. Marx used the materials of the journal for 1859, 1860, 1866 and 1872 in Volume One of Capital (the first and second editions) (see present edition, Vol. 35).— 287, 297, 372
[557] Engels quotes articles from Napoleon I's Code civil passed in 1804 and introduced also in the West and South-West German territories conquered by France. The Code continued to operate in the Rhine Province after its annexation by Prussia. Article 2265 quoted by Engels reads in full: 'Those who acquire real estate in good faith (bona fides) through honest work and on legal grounds, are acquiring property by virtue of the expiry of the ten years' statute of limitations if the owner is residing on the territory under the jurisdiction of the court of appeal in which the property is located, and twenty years limitations, if he is residing outside this territory.'—441
[147] ' 4 7 Marx planned to have Capital translated into English back in 1865, when working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels, 31 July 1865; present edition, Vol. 42). Reporter Peter Fox, a member of the British labour movement, was to help him find a publisher. However, due to the latter's death in 1869 nothing was settled. The English translation of Volume One of Capital edited by Engels appeared after Marx's death, in January 1887. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886; Eleanor Marx-Aveling assisted in preparing the translation for the press.— 97, 442.
[558] Engels refers to Favre's speech made on 21 February 1870 at a session of the Corps législatif and featured by the Journal des Débats on 22 February 1870.—442
[559] The reference is to the death of the Lafargues' daughter born on 1 January 1870. She died at the end of February.—444
[561] A. Talandier's article 'L'Irlande et le catholicisme', spearheaded against the Irish national liberation movement appeared in La Marseillaise, No. 58, 16 February 1870; a synopsis of the article featured by The Daily News appeared in La Marseillaise, No. 60, 18 February 1870. A. Talandier's obituary Nécrologie. Alexandre Hertzen, originally carried by the Paris newspaper Démocratie, was reprinted by the Brussels' L'Internationale, No. 56, 6 February 1870.—445
[564] -phe soirée at the place of the French petty-bourgeois socialist Moilin at which the plans for social reform were discussed, was described by Lafargue in his letter to Marx of January 1870.— 449
[452] In the summer and autumn of 1869, a mass movement developed in Ireland for an amnesty of the Fenian prisoners (see Note 86). In 1867, the Fenians were preparing an armed uprising; in September of that year, the British authorities managed to arrest the leaders of the Fenian movement and put them on trial. The Fenians were persecuted, their newspapers were closed down, and the operation of the Habeas Corpus Act suspended (see Note 486). The campaign for the defence of the convicted Fenians launched in England was supported by the General Council of the First International. Numerous meetings presented petitions to the British Government demanding that the Irish revolutionaries be released, but Prime Minister Gladstone refused to meet these demands. On 24 October 1869, a mass demonstration in defence of the Fenians took place in London (for an account of the event, see this volume, pp. 546-47), after which the General Council resolved to address the English people in defence of the Fenians, and set up a special commission consisting of Marx, Lucraft, Jung and Eccarius. On Marx's suggestion, the issue was expanded, and in November 1869 the General Council held a broad discussion on the attitude of the British Government to the Irish prisoners. Marx spoke twice (see present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 407-12), and wrote a 'Draft Resolution of the General Council on the Policy of the British Government Towards the Irish Prisoners' (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 83, and this volume, p. 375), which was approved by the General Council on 30 November 1869.—365, 449, 546
[441] A reference to the French translation of Volume One of Capital made by Charles Keller, member of the Paris Section of the First International. Keller began the work in October 1869, and on 16 October sent Marx the translation of Chapter II of the first volume for corrections. Keller took part in the Paris Commune and emigrated to Switzerland after its defeat. The work remained unfinished. The translation of Volume One of Capital into French was made by Joseph Roy and published in Paris in 1872-75 in instalments, which were later brought together in a book (on the French translation of Capital, see also Note 309).—359, 378, 399, 450, 545
[566] The column 'Irishman in Paris' (The Irishman, No. 36, 5 March 1870) featured a report from Paris, which praised highly Jenny Marx's first article on the Irish question published by La Marseillaise. Jenny's article was published under the pen-name J. Williams; Marx also used this alias in some of his letters for considerations of secrecy, but his initial was A. That is why Engels writes that he 'could not explain the Christian name'.—451
[567] A reference to the second edition of Engels' work The Peasant War in Germany (see Note 520).—452
[368] A reference to the June 1848 uprising of the French proletariat. See Marx's and Engels' articles 'The 23rd of June', 'The 24th of June', 'The 25th of June', and 'The June Revolution' (present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 130-49, and 157-64).— 298
[569] In his article, Marx made use of the material on the death of Michael Terbert provided by The Irishman, No. 34, 19 February 1870 (see Note 556).—453
[570] Huxley's first public lecture 'The Forefathers and Forerunners of the English People' was delivered in Manchester on 9 January 1870. A detailed account of the lecture, headed 'Professor Huxley on Political Ethnology', was published in the Manchester Examiner & Times on 12 January 1870.— 454
[571] An express issue of La Marseillaise (No. 79, 9 March 1870) carried letters of prominent members in the republican and the national liberation movements in France, Spain and other countries who in their time had been kept or were still in prison. Among others, the newspaper featured letters from Rochefort, Raul Rigo, O'Donovan Rossa, and a posthumous letter from Victor Noir. The headline opening O'Donovan Rossa's letter read: 'Letter of the Citizen O'Donovan Rossa, Fenian deputy to the British Parliament, condemned to the galleys and held at the Newgate Prison'.— 454
[572] Engels informs Marx about Friedrich Moll's letter of 28 February 1870 and of Klein's letter of the same date. Their authors thanked Engels for the 50 thaler he had sent to the Solingen production cooperative (see this volume, pp. 415-17). This is what Klein told Engels about the incident with Schapper: during Schapper's and Engels' stay in Sollingen in 1849, Schapper said to Engels once: 'Brother Engels, why do you argue with these dogs wearing kid gloves, take out your sword and cut off their heads'. Further on, Klein told the story of how Engels, as a young man, once paid his workers' wages 'on the basis of the communist principle'.— 456
[573] A reference to the series of articles on the Irish question written by Jenny Marx (see Note 562). In this letter, Engels refers to the publication of the second article in La Marseillaise on 9 March 1870, which reproduced O'Donovan Rossa's letter about the harsh treatment of political prisoners in English prisons (O'Donovan Rossa was arrested in 1865). On 10 March, this letter was reprinted by The Times (on the publication of O'Donovan Rossa's letter, see also this volume, pp. 454-55).—457
[574] The Daily News of 16 March 1870 carried an anonymous article officially initiated by the Home Office headed by Bruce. It made an attempt to deny the facts cited in O'Donovan Rossa's letter, but recognised that Rossa 'has been put in irons'.—457
[7] Engels is probably referring to the letter Wilhelm Liebknecht wrote to him on 29 March 1868.—5, 8
[577] This letter was written on a form stamped: 'General Council of the International Working Men's Association, 256, High Holborn, London, W . C ; the letter carries an oval stamp 'International Working Men's Central Council London'.—458, 504, 511
[579] A. Talandier's article 'La Marseillaise et la presse anglaise' appeared in La Marseillaise, No. 85, 15 March, and dated 14 March 1870; it contained a review of the articles carried by The Times on 10 March and The Daily Telegraph and The Daily News on 11 March 1870.—459
[8] In his letter to Engels of 25 February 1868 Otto Meissner requested assistance in drawing up a publisher's advertisement announcing the publication of Volume One of Capital so as 'to break silence through powerful advertisement'. Simultaneously, Otto Meissner sent notices containing the table of contents to about thirty newspapers.—5, 37
[581] A programme of the Paris society of proletarians-positivists was read at the General Council meeting of 15 March 1870. It stressed that the society members 'aim at social regeneration without God or King and hope to bring it about by the propagation of the positivist doctrine'. When discussing their admittance to the International, Marx stated that 'their rules were too exclusive and contrary to the General Rules of the Association'. Marx and Mottershead spoke out 'against admitting them as positivists'. On Milner's suggestion, a decision was reached to instruct Dupont as Corresponding Secretary for France to try and make the proletarians-positivists aware of the discrepancies in their programme. Comtism (positivism), a trend in bourgeois philosophy and sociology founded by Auguste Comte which opposes both speculative idealism and materialism; it recognises the practical results achieved by science but rejects its philosophical materialist conclusions from the position of agnosticism. Comtism reduces all scientific cognition, including that in history and sociology (the latter term has been coined by Comte) to empirical knowledge. Social development is considered from a biological angle. According to Comte, capitalism is the highest stage of social development, and attempts at its revolutionary change are supposed to be futile. Comte believed that the road to social harmony lies through 'new religion', a cult of an abstract higher being.— 460
[582] Engels' letter to Marx posted on 21 March 1870 has not been found.— 460
[583] After three of Jenny Marx's articles on the treatment of the Irish political prisoners in English prisons were published in La Marseillaise (see present edition, Vol. 21), the Irish M. P. George Henry Moore demanded, on 17 March 1870, that the Government launch a 'full and free' public inquiry into the matter. Under pressure from public opinion, Gladstone was forced, when replying to Moore, to agree to such an inquiry, but made a significant stipulation as to the character of the commission, stating that he 'shall be responsible for the manner in which the inquiry is conducted'. Thus Gladstone secured the right to appoint not a Parliamentary but a Royal commission which would not be accountable to Parliament. Moore's inquiry and Gladstone's reply were published in The Times on 18 March; on 19 March, in the column 'Treatment of Political Prisoners' and under the heading 'Probable Inquiry', The Irishman featured the item (mentioned by Engels) which, contrary to what Gladstone had stated, said that a Parliamentary commission was to be appointed.—461
[584] In 1844, to please the Austrian Government, J. R. G. Graham, the British Home Secretary (1841-1846), ordered the postal department to submit letters of the Italian revolutionary refugees to the police for inspection.— 462
[4] Marx is referring to the stand of the British trade union leaders in the 1867-68 election campaign, when George Odger, William Cremer, George Potter et al. urged the workers to come to an understanding with the Liberals and in fact refused to draw up an independent and class-conditioned election programme. In the course of the elections, trade union leaders frequently withdrew their candidatures in favour of one election coalition or another with which they were affiliated. A case in point is George Odger, who was nominated in Chelsea (London). During the 1868 election campaign, Liberal leader Gladstone publicly promised to settle the Irish question, which since the autumn of 1867 acquired a sharper edge due to a new upsurge of the national liberation movement in Ireland against British colonial oppression. He came out with the slogans 'to pacify Ireland' and 'to reconcile England and Ireland' and he also promised a church reform. In his speech in the House of Commons on 3 April 1868, Gladstone likened the Tory policies in Ireland to the conquest of England by the Normans (see The Times, No. 26090, 4 April 1868). Marx warned the leaders of the British labour movement against the dangerous influence of social demagogy inherent in the Liberals' election platform on the Irish question. Trade union leaders, Lucraft in particular, actually supported bourgeois Radicals in their assessment of the Irish Fenians (see Note 86).— 3
[585] Marx is referring to two of Becker's letters: the one to Jung of 12 March, in which Becker explains his behaviour in the conflict between the General Council and L'Égalité (see notes 507 and 525), and to Marx of 13 March 1870.—463
[87] This letter was first published in English in an abridged form in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953.—58
[589] When publishing this letter in the book Der Braunschweiger Ausschuss der socialdemokratischen Arbeiter-Partei in Lätzen und vor dem Gericht, Brunswick, 1872, Bracke pointed out that the letter was written on a form stamped: 'General Council of the International Working Men's Association, 256, High Holborn, London, W.C.—464
[590] Acting on the decisions of the Eisenach Congress (see Note 373), the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany urged Party members to join the International Working Men's Association as private persons, since to establish the organisational links between the two bodies, it was necessary to circumvent the Law on Associations operating in Prussia. In a Committee letter of 17 March 1870, Wilhelm Bracke noted that Johann Georg Eccarius had long been commissioned with obtaining 3,000 International membership cards which could have been distributed in the Party. On receiving the letter, Marx immediately forwarded the requested membership cards to Leonhard von Bonhorst as the Committee Secretary.—464
[591] A reference to Bonhorst's letter to Marx of 21 February 1870 and Bonhorst's letter to Borkheim of 17 March 1870, which Borkheim forwarded to Marx on 21 March. Bonhorst also wrote to Engels about the financial predicament of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany (a letter of 17 March 1870).— 464
[592] This letter is reproduced from a copy made in an unidentified handwriting. It begins with the written stamp of the General Council: 'General Council of the International Working Men's Association, 256, High Holborn, London, W.C.—464
[353] Marx and his youngest daughter Eleanor stayed with Engels in Manchester from 25 May to 14 June 1869. Eleanor's visit probably lasted until early October.—286, 290, 291, 317, 337, 370, 466
[593] The Coercion Bill was introduced in the House of Commons by Gladstone on 17 March 1870, and passed by it. Aimed against the national liberation movement, the Bill provided for the suspension of constitutional guarantees in Ireland and the introduction of extraordinary powers for the English authorities in the struggle against the Irish revolutionaries. Mentioning Clanricarde, Marx refers to his speech of 21 March 1870, during the discussion of the Bill in the House of Lords. Clanricarde accused Gladstone's government of leniency towards Ireland and demanded a harsher policy to restore 'social order' there.— 466
[594] This phrase is a reply to Kugelmann, who had requested Marx in a letter of 21 March 1870, to let him know whether Jenny Marx had Goethe's Works; Kugelmann wanted to give her a birthday present.—466
[597] This letter was first published in English in an abridged form in: The Labour Monthly, Vol. 15, No. 1, London, 1933.—470
[598] Due to a serious illness, in the winter of 1869-70 Marx was able to attend only three General Council meetings (14 December, 4 January and 15 March). On 29 March, on Lucraft's suggestion, the General Council passed a resolution 'expressing the sympathy of the Council with Cit. Marx on account of his continued illness'. The resolution was communicated to Marx by Eccarius on 4 April 1870.—471
[600] Marx mentions the letter of 26 March 1870 addressed by Sigfrid Meyer to Eccarius as General Secretary of the International, but forwarded by the author to Marx with permission to dispose of it as he saw fit.—471
[461] Repealers—people campaigning for a repeal of the Anglo-Irish Union of 1801 imposed upon Ireland by the British Government after the suppression of the Irish uprising of 1798. The Union, which came into force on 1 January 1801, put an end to the autonomy of Ireland and abolished the Irish Parliament. One of the consequences of its introduction was the abolition of tariffs established by the Irish Parliament at the end of the 18th century to protect the rising Irish industry, and this led to its total decline. Since the 1820s, the movement for the repeal of the Union began to gain momentum in Ireland. However, its bourgeois liberal leadership (O'Connell and others) regarded the campaign only as a means to wrest insignificant concessions for the Irish bourgeoisie from the British Government. Under the impact of the mass movement, the liberals were forced to found the Repealer Association (1840), and they attempted to make it agree to a compromise with the British ruling classes.—368, 390, 398, 473
[602] Between 22 February and 28 May 1870, the North German Reichstag held a debate on the criminal code. On 1 March, the Reichstag voted for the abolition of capital punishment; on 15 March, the liberals suggested that for political prisoners, hard labour should be replaced by imprisonment, but whenever a political crime had been committed for dishonest reasons, penal servitude should be retained. This motion, which gave the government an opportunity to put political prisoners in convict prisons, was passed by the Reichstag. The debate on the criminal code ended on 25 May 1870, with capital punishment restored on the insistence of the government on 23 May.—477
[603] In a letter to Engels of 5 April 1870, Liebknecht wrote about his plan to go to Berlin and try and found a cheap daily newspaper there. In the same letter, he spoke highly of Engels' preface to the second edition of The Peasant War in Germany (present edition, Vol. 21), and wrote that the views expounded by Engels coincided with his own. He also intended to publish his report on the land question in Germany in connection with the decisions of the Basle Congress to abolish private property on land (see notes 447 and 458).—477
[605] Pfänder was elected member of the General Council on 1 November 1864, and remained one until 1867. On 18 January 1870, Pfänder was again elected to the General Council, but did not take an active part in its work until 12 April 1870.—478
[508] A reference to a resolution of the Basle Congress adopted on 9 September 1869, on the procedure of settling conflicts between the International's sections. (See 'Report of the Fourth Annual Congress of the International Working Men's Association', London [1869], p. 21.) It is included in the work of Marx and Engels Fictitious Splits in the International. Private Circular from the General Council of the International Working Men's Association (present edition, Vol. 23).— 404, 480
[196] A reference to the publication of the Russian translation of Volume One of Capital, which was undertaken by the St. Petersburg publisher N. Polvakov; on 30 (18) September 1868, Danielson wrote to Marx on his behalf (see this volume, pp. 123-25). At the end of 1869 it was decided that the translation would be made by Bakunin. However, the specimens he submitted were not accepted as satisfactory. Starting with the summer of 1870, the translation was being done by Lopatin, who used his stay in London to consult Marx. He translated chapters II, III and IV (in part) of the first German edition of Volume One. Late in 1870, with the translation still unfinished, Lopatin returned to Russia to help organise Chernyshevsky's escape from Siberia. By October 1871, the translation was finished by Danielson (he completed Chapter IV, and did chapters V and VI) and Lyubavin, a former fellow-student of Danielson, professor of chemistry at Moscow University (he translated Chapter I and the supplement). The first Russian edition of Volume One of Capital, which was also the first foreign edition, appeared in St. Petersburg on 8 April (27 March) 1872.—130, 480
[607] A reference to the famine that struck Ireland in 1845-47. It was caused by the potato crop failure and the large-scale exports of other foodstuffs from the country. According to the data of 1851, between 1841 and 1851, the famine and eviction of small tenants from land ('the clearing of estates') resulted in the death of over a million people and emigration of another million.— 480
[608] Marx is referring to the section on Ireland in Chapter VI of the first German edition of Capital in 1867 (pp. 688-99), which in the first English edition (1887) corresponded to Part VII, 'The Accumulation of Capital', Chapter XXV, 'The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation', Section 5. 'Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation, f. Ireland' (see present edition, Vol. 35).— 481
[609] Freeholders—a group of small landowners in England. They paid the landlord an insignificant fixed rent and had the right to dispose freely of their plots. They enjoyed low property qualifications of 40 shillings (£2) (annual income). In 1829, this figure was raised five times over, and 40-shilling freeholders lost the right to vote. In the 1830s-40s, more and more freeholders were rapidly ruined, their lands passing into the hands of landlords who leased them to big farmers, capitalist tenants.— 481, 484
[610] A reference to the congress of German natural scientists, researchers and medical men held in Hanover on 18-23 September 1865. At one of the sessions, Schulze made an attempt to disprove Darwin's theory.—482
[611] Under the Poor Law that had existed in England since the 16th century, each parish levied a tax for the benefit of the poor; parishioners unable to provide for themselves and their families received aid through poor relief funds. In 1834, a new Poor Law was passed in England that recognised only one form of help, placing the poor into workhouses under a prison-like regime which the people nicknamed 'poor men's Bastilles'.— 484
[613] Engels uses the term 'gouvernement direct par le peuple' meaning the so-called direct popular legislation, référendums on the various issues of the internal affairs and policies of the Swiss cantons (see Note 276). Thus, on 6 February 1870, the canton of Ticino held a referendum on the changes in the cantonal constitution (administrative division, representation in the cantonal council, etc). On 20 February, the canton of Zurich held référendums on the tax bill, etc.—485
[614] The excerpt from this letter from the words 'I am now forced...' to the end was published in: The Letters of Karl Marx. Selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, New Jersey, USA, 1979. According to the editors, Marx wrote it to Paul and Laura Lafargue.—485
[616] On Marx's suggestion, on 12 April 1870, the General Council granted the credentials of the International's correspondent in France to Henri Verlet.—485
[619] Marx sent Engels Ferret's letter to Jung of 15 April 1870, in which Perret described in detail the split that occurred at the Chaux-de-Fonds Congress (see Note 606) and the Bakuninists' intrigues in the Swiss sections of the International.— 488
[620] On 7 April 1870, the Federal Committee newly established by the Bakuninists (at the Chaux-de-Fonds Congress; see Note 606), which had its headquarters at Chaux-de-Fonds, directed a letter to the General Council requesting it to settle the conflict between itself and the Romance Federal Council. The letter, which was signed by the Federal Committee Secretary F. Robert, also informed the General Council about the establishment of a new La Solidarité newspaper by the Bakuninists.—488
[621] Laura and Paul Lafargue's letters of 18 April (see this volume, pp. 556-57) and after 20 April 1870, informed Marx about the foundation, in Paris, of the Federal Council of the International Working Men's Association (see Note 644). Lafargue believed that for expediency's sake, he should not become a member of the newly established Council but should be a representative of the London General Council at the Paris Federation. He asked Marx to discuss granting him these powers at the next meeting. This was done by the General Council on 17 May 1870.—489
[622] Replying to Marx's letter before 4 May 1870, Laura Lafargue stated that Marx's warning about Paul Robin's splitting activities had been communicated to Leo Frankel.—489
[23] The part of Marx's letter of 11 April 1868 addressed to Paul Laf argue was written in German.—10
[257] This refers to the Programme and Rules of the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy (Programme et Règlement de l'Alliance Internationale de la Démocratie Socialiste), founded by Mikhail Bakunin, in Geneva in October 1868. Besides Bakunin, members of its Provisional Committee were Brosset, Duval, Guétat, Perron, Zagorsky and Johann Philipp Becker. In 1868 leaflets in French and German containing these documents were published in Geneva. On 29 November, Becker, who shortly afterwards broke with Bakunin, sent the Alliance's Programme and Rules to the General Council for approval. On 15 December, the General Council spoke against the admission of the Alliance to the International Working Men's Association, and on 22 December unanimously approved, with insignificant amendments, a circular letter 'The International Working Men's Association and the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy' (see present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 34-36) written by Marx and approved by Engels, which exposed the Alliance's wish to split the workers' movement (see this volume, p. 192). The circular letter was sent out to all the sections of the International as a confidential communication. For the text of the Programme and Rules of the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy with Marx's remarks, see present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 207-11.—190, 191, 201, 211, 218, 413, 424, 489
[301] On the insistence of the General Council, Article 2 of the Alliance's Programme was changed in April 1869 to read as follows: 'It is above all working for the complete and final abolition of classes and for the political, economic and social equalisation of persons of both sexes.'—236, 491
[625] A reference to the General Council entering the question of the right of inheritance on the Basle Congress agenda (see Note 379). A major preliminary discussion on the issue was held at the General Council in the summer of 1869. On 3 August the Council approved Marx's 'Report of the General Council on the Right of Inheritance' (see present edition, Vol. 21). Marx's report was read at the Congress by Eccarius on 11 September 1869.— 492
[586] La Marseillaise, Nos. 72 and 73, 2 and 3 March, carried the obituary of Herzen written by Bakunin in a letter form in which Bakunin called Herzen his friend and fellow-countryman and said that his death 'was a tremendous loss to his friends, to the cause of Russian emancipation and ... to that of all mankind'. He wrote that he had been closely connected with Herzen for 30 years and that Herzen, Ogarev and himself had always had a common goal. The obituary was reprinted in full in Nos. 10, 11 and 12 of Le Progrès on 5, 12 and 19 March 1870.—463, 492
[587] A reference to the money sent to Herzen in 1858 by the Russian landowner P. A. Bakhmetev for propaganda purposes (the so-called Bakhmetev Fund). Marx learned about this from J. Ph. Becker's letter of 13 March 1870. In 1869, under pressure from Bakunin and Ogarev, Herzen agreed to divide the fund into two parts, one of which Ogarev sent to Nechayev. After Herzen's death in 1870, Nechayev received the other part from Ogarev.— 463, 492
[541] Marx is referring to a group of Russian political refugees from among the young intellectuals, followers of the noted Russian revolutionary democrats Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. In the spring of 1870, they founded the Russian Section of the First International in Geneva. A substantial contribution to its organisation had been made by A. A. Serno-Solovyevich, a member of the International, who died in 1869. On 12 March 1870, the Committee of the Section sent the General Council its Programme, Rules, and a letter to Marx requesting him to be their representative at the General Council. The programme of the Russian Section defined its objectives as follows: '1. To popularise the ideas and principles of the International Association in Russia by every possible rational means, whose special character and mode of influence stem from the very position of the country. 2. To promote the establishment of international sections among Russian workers. 3. To help establish stable, mutual contacts between the working classes of Russia and Western Europe, including assistance to each other in order to more successfully attain their common goal, emancipation.' This document, and the official reply of the General Council written by Marx, 'The General Council of the International Working Men's Association to Committee Members of the Russian Section in Geneva' (see present edition, Vol. 21) were published by the press organ of the Russian Section, Narodnoye Dyelo (People's Cause), No. 1, 15 April 1870. At its meeting of 22 March 1870, the General Council admitted the Russian Section to the International, and Marx agreed to represent it at the General Council. The Section rendered Marx and Engels substantial assistance in counteracting the Bakuninists' attempts to split the International. Members of the Russian Section, including Nikolai Utin, Anton Trusov, Yekaterina Barteneva, Victor Bartenev, Yelena Dmitriyeva, and Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya, took an active part in the Swiss and international working class movement. The Section made an attempt to establish contacts with the revolutionarv movement in Russia. Its work was terminated in 1872.— 430, 462, 492
[606] After L'Egalité editorial board had been reorganised (see notes 507 and 525), the Bakuninists, attempting to retain their lost positions, secured a formal majority of votes at a regular congress of the Romance Federation held in La Chaux-de-Fonds on 4-6 April 1870. The congress discussed the attitude of the working class towards the political struggle. In contrast to the Geneva sections, the Bakuninists advocated abstention from political struggle referring to the French text of the Rules (see Marx's work 'The General Council to the Federal Council of Romance Switzerland', present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 89-90). On Bakunin's insistence, the congress began its proceedings with the admission of the newly-formed sections to the Federation. A sharp controversy arose over the admission of the section named 'Alliance of Socialist Democracy — Central Section' founded by Bakunin in Geneva in June 1869 which, in fact, exercised leadership in the secret International Alliance of Socialist Democracy, and the Chaux-de-Fonds pro-Bakunin section. Utin, one of the leaders of the Russian Section in Geneva, exposed Bakunin's schismatic activities. A split occurred; the Geneva delegates and other General Council supporters continued their work independently. An announcement about the Chaux-de-Fonds split mentioned by Marx was published in L'Egalité, No. 15, 9 April 1870. The Bakuninists had assumed the name of the Romance Congress, elected a new Federal Committee and transferred its seat to La Chaux-de-Fonds. Thus two Federal Committees appeared in Romance Switzerland, in Geneva and in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The Bakuninists started publication of a newspaper La Solidarité, under the editorship of James Guillaume, first in Neuchâtel (11 April 1870-12 May 1871), and then in Geneva. In fact it was the continuation of Le Progrès. In early April 1870, representatives of the Romance Federal Committee and supporters of the Alliance sent the General Council detailed reports on the congress in La Chaux-de-Fonds and requested that it pass a decision concerning the split. On 12 April, the Council instructed Jung to collect additional material, and, having received exhaustive information in April and May, on 28 June 1870 it passed a resolution proposed by Marx which confirmed the powers of the old Federal Committee. The Bakuninist Federal Committee was instructed to assume another title (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 136).—480, 493
[627] Marx refers to Laura Lafargue's letter of 18 April 1870. Calling her Laurent, Marx hints at Paul-Laurent, the pen-name of Paul Lafargue (see Note 615; see also this volume, p. 557).— 493, 555
[630] Marx is referring to the lectures on ethnology read by Flourens at the Collège de France in the early 1860s and published in 1863 as a book: G. Flourens, Histoire de l'homme. Cours d'histoire naturelle des corps organisés au Collège de France, Paris, 1863.—497
[632] On 3 May 1870, Bracke and Bonhorst requested Engels' permission to publish his letter to Bracke of 28 April in Der Volksstaat, organ of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party, saying that it was of general interest and importance to Party members. Engels was to write to them before 10 May if he did not agree. On 14 May, an excerpt from Engels' letter was published in Der Volksstaat. The editors of the present edition do not possess the original letter.— 498
[634] On 17 March 1870, Bonhorst as Secretary of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party Committee wrote to Marx and Engels that the workers forming the basis of the party were too passive. He also stated, 'since our party is, amongst other things, the youngest of those that have entered the social and political arena, it is probably also lacking in strength.'—499
[37] A reference to the first session of the Customs Parliament held between 27 April and 23 May 1868. The Customs Union Parliament—the guiding body of the Customs Union reorganised after the war of 1866 and the signing, on 8 July 1867, of a peace treaty between Prussia and the South German states, which provided for the establishment of this body. The Parliament comprised members of the North German Confederation's Reichstag and deputies from the South German states: Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse. Bebel and Liebknecht were the two workers' deputies in it. It was to deal exclusively with issues of trade and customs policies; Bismarck's intention gradually to widen its jurisdiction by encompassing political questions was met with stubborn opposition from the South German representatives (see Note 62).—20
[13] Marx is referring to his articles of 1856-57 for the New York Daily Tribune on the French joint-stock bank Crédit Mobilier—'The French Crédit Mobilier' (a series of articles) and 'Crédit Mobilier' (see present edition, Vol. 15).—7
[638] A reference to Wilhelm Liebknecht's letter to Engels of 27 April 1870.— 503
[640] On 3 May 1870, the French Section in London (see Note 72) gave a banquet for Flourens, who had fled from France under threat of arrest. An account of the banquet was forwarded to France, Germany and some other countries by Reuter and Havas-Bullier agencies and published, specifically, in the Journal des Débats on 5 May. It stated that the banquet was chaired by 'M. Le Lubez, président de la Société Internationale', when Le Lubez had in fact been expelled from the International for slander back in 1866. On 10 May 1870, the General Council approved Marx's 'Draft Resolution of the General Council on the "French Federal Section in London"', in which it resolutely dissociated itself from the provocative activities of the French Section (see present edition, Vol. 21).—504
[644] yhe Paris Federation of the International Working Men's Association was founded on 18 April 1870, at a general meeting of the International's sections in Paris under the chairmanship of Louis Eugène Varlin. The meeting, which attracted 1,200-1,300 participants, adopted the Rules of the Federation (see this volume, pp. 555-56). However, the police reprisals and arrests of the International's members which began in France late in April 1870 in connection with preparations for the plebiscite (see Note 612) disrupted the activities of the Federation.— 506, 555
[643] fi43 After an attempt on the life of Napoleon III made by the Italian revolutionary Orsini, in February 1858, Palmerston introduced in the House of Commons the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, under which émigrés and natives were to be severely punished for participation in political plots. The Bill was introduced under the pretext of threats by the French Government, which accused England of granting asylum to political refugees. Under pressure from a mass protest movement, the Bill was voted down by the House of Commons and Palmerston was obliged to resign.— 505
[646] A reference to Sigismund Borkheim's letter to Marx of 3 May 1870, in which he thanked Marx for sending him Charles Lever's novel Harry Lorrequer.—506
[651] fi51 A reference to the following books: R. O'Flaherty, Ogygia: seu, Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia. In très partes. Londini, 1685; Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, Tomes I-IV, Buckingham, 1814-1826, ed. Ch. O'Conor; J. Ware, Inquiries concerning Ireland and its Antiquities, Dublin, 1705; J. Ware, Two Books of the Writers of Ireland, Dublin, 1704.—516, 517
[480] Chetham Library—the oldest library in Manchester, founded in 1653. Marx worked there together with Engels in 1845 during his first stay in England.— 388, 402, 518
[633] On 17 March 1870, Leonhard von Bonhorst, Secretary of the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, sent Engels a cashier's report for 1869, in which he wrote about the poor state of the Party's finances.— 498
[654] In the first publication of this letter in: MEGA, Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931, and in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIV, Moscow, 1931, this letter was erroneously dated 16 March 1870.— 519
[655] Marx forwards to Engels Liebknecht's letter of 11 May 1870, in which the latter explained the errors, including the footnote on Hegel, made when publishing Engels' work The Peasant War in Germany (see Note 647) in Der Volksstaat. Liebknecht promised to put in a statement to the effect that the notes had been supplied by the editorial board and not Engels. He considered it unnecessary to publish Engels' official statement (see this volume, pp. 508-09).— 519
[657] Engels visited Marx in London on his way to Germany late in December 1869.—521
[446] This letter was first published in English in an abridged form in: Marx K., Engels F., Selected Correspondence, Moscow, 1979.—363, 365, 522
[320] Boustrapa— nickname of Louis Bonaparte, composed of the first syllables of the names of the cities where he staged putsches: Boulogne (6 August 1840), Strasbourg (30 October 1836), and Paris (coup d'e'tat of 2 December 1851, which culminated in the establishment of a Bonapartist dictatorship).— 253, 523
[659] A reference to Jenny Marx's letter to Manchester of 30 May 1870.— 524
[660] fhe address of Engels' house, in which he spent his last years in Manchester and where Marx and his daughter Eleanor stayed in May-June 1870, was 86 Mornington St.— 525
[661] This is Marx's reply to Le Lubez' letter of 11 June, in which he asked whether Marx was the author of the item 'Aus England' carried by Der Volksstaat on 11 May 1870. It exposed the provocative activities of the so-called French Section in London and especially its action on behalf of the International at the banquet for Flourens given in London on 3 May 1870 (see Note 640).— 526
[662] A reference to Kugelmann's letter to Marx of 13 June 1870, in which he inquired what sort of flat to rent for Marx in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary).— 527
[664] This phrase can be found in the preface to the second edition of Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse. Zum Gebrauch seiner Vorlesungen von Georg Wilhelm Hegel, 2 Ausg. Heidelberg, Osswald, 1827, S. XVI: 'Lessing said in his time that Spinoza is treated as a dead dog.' Hegel referred to the talk between Lessing and Jacobi that took place on 7 June 1780, in the course of which Lessing said: 'The people are still referring to Spinoza as a dead dog.' See: F. H. Jacobi, Werke, Bd. IV, Abt. I, Leipzig, 1819, S. 6 8 . - 5 2 8
[41] appeared in 1859, Marx produced a lengthy economic manuscript throughout 1861-63, which was a second rough draft of Capital (the first was the manuscripts of 1857-58). In 1863, he evolved the final plan for a four-book work, the first three books theoretical and the fourth, a historical and critical one. Having finished work on the manuscripts of 1861-63, Marx began preparing them for the press in August 1863. This work from 1863-65 resulted in the third rough draft of Capital, three books of a theoretical character. The notes for the fourth book, the Theories of Surplus-Value, were incorporated in the manuscripts of 1861-63. Later, having completed work on them, Marx went back to the first book. On Engels' advice, he decided it should appear first. Preparation for the press continued throughout 1866 and most of 1867. The first German edition of the first book appeared in September 1867 as Volume One of Capital. Under the plan agreed upon with Meissner, the publisher, the second and third books (devoted to the circulation of capital and the process of capitalist production as a whole) were to appear as Volume Two, while the fourth book on the history of economic theories was to be Volume Three of Capital. Marx, however, had not completed the preparation of the last books of Capital for the press. After his death, this was done by Engels, who published Marx's manuscripts relating to the second and third books as volumes Two and Three of Capital (1885 and 1894). Engels also intended to prepare for the press and publish as Volume Four of Capital the above-mentioned manuscript of the fourth book, but did not have time to do this in his lifetime. This edition presents this book of Capital as part of the Economic Manuscripts of 1861-63, (volumes 30-34) while Volumes One, Two and Three of Capital are to be found in volumes 35, 36 and 37 of the present edition respectively.—21, 30, 61, 68, 119, 232, 234, 259, 408, 528, 545
[665] In early July 1870, Lafargue wrote in a letter to Marx that he would be visited by a young Russian revolutionary, one Hermann Lopatin, to whom he had given Marx's address and a letter of introduction. Marx and Lopatin met on 2 July 1870. Describing his meeting with Marx, Lopatin wrote: '...I was afraid to run out of subjects for discussion with this luminary, and then I was secretly puzzled — what language except that of signs could I use to communicate with him? All my fears proved groundless on both of my visits (of which the last lasted for ten hours), the conversation did not stop for a minute.' Lopatin visited Marx for a second time on 3 July same year.— 530
[666] This excerpt from Marx's letter was quoted by Lopatin in a letter to Lavrov of 6 July 1870. First, Lopatin gave a short exposition of Marx's letter: 'Today, I received from him (Marx) a new issue of the Narodnoye Dyelo (People's Cause) and a very nice note with the latest news about the court trial of our Paris comrades (the reference is to the third trial of the International's members in France; see Note 667—Ed.). He concluded by asking if I should like him to find me a clerk's job at some London office.'—535
[667] A reference is to the third trial of the members of the Paris Federation of the International arrested by the French police on the eve of the plebiscite (see notes 612 and 642). The trial was held between 22 June and 5 July 1870. The prosecution failed to bring in the charge of conspiracy; the defendants were charged not with complicity in the fictitious plot, but with being members of the International.—537
[668] Marx enclosed with this letter the text of the 'Confidential Communication to All Sections' and the 'Programme for the Mainz Congress of the International', which was to open in Mainz on 5 September 1870. Both documents were written in French. They are to be found in Vol. 21 of the present edition. On the top of the first page is the International's round seal with the inscription: 'International Working Men's Association. Central Council London'.—537
[3] Marx is referring to the Parliamentary elections to be held in November 1868 on the basis of the second Reform Bill of 1867. The law extended suffrage to people resident in town for a period of not less than 12 months and renting houses or flats for no less than £10. In the counties, the right to vote was granted to tenants with an annual income of above £12. Suffrage was granted to a section of skilled workers. However, it was not extended to Scotland and Ireland.—3, 375
[180] An excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877, Ed. by F. J. Raddatz, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto, 1981.— 119, 239, 241, 264, 268, 295, 299, 372, 408, 416, 425, 436, 508, 519
[5] The reference is to Freiligrath's letter written on 3 April 1868, in which he thanks Marx for a copy of Volume One of Capital sent to him in September 1867 and congratulates him on his daughter Laura's marriage. The letter contained the following opinion of Capital: 'This is precisely the book one would wish to study, and its success has not been quick and loud in coming, but its hidden impact will be all the more profound and durable. I know that on the Rhine, many young merchants and factory-owners are delighted by your book. In that environment, it will attain its real purpose; for the scholars, it will be, apart from this, an indispensable source.'—4, 8
[481] Brehon Law, the general name of the Celtic common law code, took its name from the Brehons, judges in Celtic Ireland. The laws operated in Ireland until 1605, when they were repealed by the British Government. Their publication was started by the Brehon Law Commission set up by the British Government in 1852. The first three volumes of the Ancient Laws of Ireland appeared in 1865, 1869 and 1873 and made up the collection The Senchus Mor, or Great Old Law Book. The publication continued up to 1901.—388, 409, 442, 451, 509, 519
[507] Having failed to move to the forefront in the International's leadership at the Basle Congress (see Note 379), Bakunin altered his tactics and launched an open campaign against the General Council. His followers came to form the majority in L'Egalité weekly published in Switzerland, and as early as 6 November 1869, No. 42 carried an editorial 'Le Bulletin du Conseil Général', accusing the General Council of violating articles 2 and 3 of the Regulations on the publication of an information bulletin dealing with the conditions of workers in various countries. On 13 November, No. 43 published another article, 'L'Organisation de l'Internationale', which proposed the establishment of a federal council for England, allegedly to make it easier for the General Council to manage the more general affairs of the International. On 27 November, No. 45 featured an article 'Les Parties Politiques à Genève et l'Internationale', which suggested abstention from politics, and on 11 December, L'Égalité No. 47 lashed out against the Council's position on the Irish question in the editorial entitled 'Réflexions'. Le Progrès newspaper, which was published in Switzerland, assumed a similarly critical stand. The question of L'Egalité and Le Progrès was discussed at the General Council for the first time at a meeting of 14 December 1869. On 1 January 1870, an extraordinary Council meeting approved a circular letter, drawn up by Marx, 'The General Council to the Federal Council of Romance Switzerland', which was sent out to the International's sections (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 84).—404, 411, 489, 492
[520] In a letter of 20 December 1869, Liebknecht asked Engels for permission to reprint his work The Peasant War in Germany (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 397-482) in Der Volksstaat, and subsequently as a separate pamphlet. He also asked for a short preface to the work. Liebknecht's letter of 8 February 1870 shows that Engels had given his consent. The preface (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 93) and five chapters appeared in Der Volksstaat between 2 April and 25 June 1870; in October 1870 the work was published as a pamphlet.—411, 417, 425
[512] The report to the Belgian Federal Council written by Marx as a temporary Corresponding Secretary for Belgium is not extant. It had been forwarded to De Paepe through Hins alongside a copy of the circular letter 'The General Council to the Federal Council of Romance Switzerland' (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 84) and Robert Shaw's obituary (see Note 511).—406, 411, 414
[1] This letter was first published in English, in a slightly abridged form, in: Letters to Dr. Kugelmann by Karl Marx, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers • in the U.S.S.R., Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.—3
[523] r j e p aepe listed the works on landed property in Belgium in a letter to Marx of 1 February 1870.—412
[628] Engels is referring to a speech at the Chaux-de-Fonds Congress (see Note 606) by François Dupleix, who accused Bakunin's followers of atheism and alleged that the workers were unwilling to have the question of their faith discussed.— 495
[533] A reference to the arrest of Rochefort on 7 February 1870, in La Villette, a workers' suburb of Paris, for his article about Victor Noir's murder (see Note 516) published by La Marseillaise, 12 January 1870. White smocks was a name for French police agents. In June 1869, the Police Prefecture of Paris made an attempt to provoke a spontaneous outburst among the workers using the 'white smocks' who staged manifestations, built barricades, sang the Marseillaise, etc. Engels expressed his apprehensions that similar provocations would be staged after Rochefort's arrest.—422, 427
[538] Engels is referring to Wilhelm Liebknecht's letter of 8 February 1870. To explain why he did not know about the publication of the second edition of Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (see present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 99-197), Liebknecht wrote that Otto Meissner had not informed either Der Volksstaat or Die Zukunft about this, and as he put it, 'a week ago, I did not know for sure if the book had appeared'.—426, 428
[174] An excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence, 1846-1895, London, Lawrence LTD, [1934].—114, 127, 188, 191, 195, 262, 349, 428, 462, 471
[38] The German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei) was set up in 1865 and encompassed the democratic elements of the petty bourgeoisie and part of the bigger bourgeoisie, chiefly from South and Central German states. As distinct from the National-Liberals, it opposed Prussia's supremacy and advocated the plan for the establishment of the so-called Great Germany incorporating both Prussia and Austria. While pursuing an anti-Prussian policy, the People's Party voiced the particularist aspirations of some German states. It was against Germany's unification as a single centralised democratic republic, advocating the idea of a federative German state. In 1866, the German People's Party was joined by the Saxon People's Party, whose nucleus consisted of workers. This left wing of the German People's Party had, in effect, nothing in common with it except anti-Prussian sentiments and the wish jointly to solve the problems of national unification in a democratic way. Subsequently, it developed along socialist lines. The main section of the Party broke away from the petty-bourgeois democrats and took part in founding the Social-Democratic Workers' Party in August 1869.—20, 102, 231, 242, 257, 299, 304, 308, 313, 324, 428, 478, 513 A reference to the female suffrage meeting held in Manchester on 14 April 1868. It was reported by Newspaper (No. 340, 18 April The Bee-Hive 1868).—20
[29] The full English translation of this letter was first published in: Letters to Dr. Kugelmann by Karl Marx, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U.S.S.R., Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.—12, 48, 56, 67, 82, 130, 144, 173, 184, 213, 231, 278, 317, 337, 359, 433, 466, 475, 527
[11] A reference to Engels' intention to write a review of Volume One of Marx's Capital for The Fortnightly Review to which Professor Beesly was a contributor, (see Marx's letter to Engels of 8 January 1868, present edition, Vol. 42). While working on the review, Engels wrote out excerpts from Capital, which later made up a synopsis (see Note 26). The review was written around 20 May-1 June 1868, but rejected by the editorial board (see present edition, Vol. 20).— 6, 30, 33, 35, 37, 38, 44, 47, 50, 52, 54, 70, 73, 74, 81, 138
[562] A reference to the series of eight articles on the Irish question written by Marx's daughter Jenny and published in La Marseillaise between 1 March and 24 April 1870, under the pen-name of J. Williams (see present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 414-41). The third article was written by Jenny in collaboration with her father. In subject-matter they have a connection with Marx's essay 'The English Government and the Fenian Prisoners' (see Note 556) — 445, 449, 458, 466, 488, 501, 557
[62] Marx is referring to a Protest signed by representatives of South German states and four members of the Reichstag of the North German Confederation (see Note 10) on 7 May 1868. The authors opposed Bismarck's intention to expand the competence of the Customs Union Parliament (see Note 37) by stretching it to cover political issues. The text was printed by the Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 20, 16 May 1868.—38
[73] Marx is referring to the General Council of the First International which, up to the end of 1866, was usually referred to as the Central Council.—45, 82, 102, 161, 228, 275, 341, 396, 445, 449, 475, 488, 497
[56] A short excerpt from 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.—35, 52, 243, 446, 511, 513, 515
[6] Marx has in mind his letter to Freiligrath of 20 July 1867 (see present edition, Vol. 42, p. 397). In his reply, dispatched the same day, Freiligrath avoided giving a direct answer to Marx's question. Late in April 1867, a committee was set up in London to collect donations for Ferdinand Freiligrath, who had found himself without means of subsistence owing to the closing down of the London branch of the Banque Générale Suisse of which he was manager. On 25 and 26 April, the committee, which was made up of German petty-bourgeois emigres, appealed 'to all friends of German poetry' in England and other countries for a subscription. Similar committees were set up in many German towns and in New York. Accounts of the progress on the subscription were published by the Hermann. Deutsches Wochenblatt aus London.—4, 373
[76] G. W. F. Hegel, Sämtliche Werke, in 20 Bde., Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1927, S. 270-71).—46 76 The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 in connection with the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's birth, was conceived as a cultural and social centre of the city's German colony. At first Engels was critical of a society notorious for its tendency towards formalism and pedantry, and he kept aloof from it. But after certain amendments had been made to its Rules, he became a member of its Directorate in 1864, and later its President, devoting much time to it and exercising a considerable influence on its activities. In 1867-68, Engels was particularly occupied with its affairs since a new building was under construction. While Engels was away from Manchester in 1868, the Directorate invited Karl Vogt, who was connected with Bonapartist circles and had been casting aspersions on the proletarian revolutionaries, to give a lecture at the society. In view of this Engels decided that his political reputation would be compromised if he remained President (see this volume, p. 100 and present edition, Vol. 21, p. 18). On 2 October the secretary Davisson approached Engels on behalf of the Directorate asking him to reconsider his decision, but Engels refused. In April 1870 he was again elected member of the Directorate, but did not take an active part in its work.—46, 64, 100, 113, 345, 526
[34] An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters on 'Capital', London, New Park Publications, 1983.—19, 99, 123, 137, 224, 478, 482
[604] A reference to Sigismund Borkheim's letter to Marx of 8 April 1870, in which he quoted Liebknecht who complained in a letter to Borkheim that Marx disliked him.—478, 482
[72] A reference to the French Section of the International in London, founded in the autumn of 1865. Besides proletarian elements (Eugène Dupont, Hermann Jung, Paul Lafargue), the branch included representatives of the petty-bourgeois emigres (Le Lubez, Pierre Vésinier and later Félix Pyat). See also this volume, p. 62 and Note 8 9 . - 4 5 , 62, 63, 75, 78, 83, 91, 173, 272, 481, 488, 497
[612] Engels is referring to preparations for the so-called plebiscite which Napoleon III hoped to use to consolidate his somewhat shaky position. On 20 April 1870, the government made public a new constitution which was a compromise between the authoritarian and the parliamentary systems. It was followed by a decree on 23 April, which proposed that the French people use the plebiscite to approve or reject the following: 'The People approves the liberal reforms effected in the Constitution since 1860 by the Emperor, with the cooperation of the great bodies of the State, and ratifies the Senatus-Consultus of the 20th April 1870.' The issue was worded in such a way that a positive answer to it would sound like an approval of the overall political structure of the Second Empire. As a result of a plebiscite held on 8 May 1870, about 3.5 million citizens in fact opposed the Empire (1,894,681 abstained, and 1,577,939 voted against). A large share of the votes against the Empire belonged to the French army; in Paris alone, 46,000 servicemen gave a negative answer.—484, 508, 513, 514
[615] Paul-Laurent—the pen-name of Paul Lafargue, made up of his own name and that of his wife Laura.—485, 489
[635] Engels' letter to Borkheim, written later than 28 April 1870, has not been found.—499, 507
[629] On 16 and 20 April 1870, Liebknecht published in Der Volksstaat, nos. 31 and 32, Bakunin's article 'Briefe über die revolutionäre Bewegung in Russland. I.'—496, 499, 519
[639] Marx and his daughter Eleanor went on a visit to Engels in Manchester on 23 May and stayed there until about 23 June 1870.—504, 520, 529
[641] Société du dix Décembre (Society of December 10), a Bonapartist organisation established in 1849 and consisting, for the most part, of déclassé elements. A detailed account of the Society can be found in Marx's work The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (see present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 149-51, 186, 193-96).—504, 523
[642] In view of the preparations for the plebiscite to be held in France (see Note 612), commencing in late April 1870, arrests of socialists began throughout the country. They were charged with belonging to the International Working Men's Association, as well as with 'complicity' in the plot against Napoleon III (the so-called Blois trial), which was in fact staged by the Prefect of the Paris Police Pietri. On 5 May 1870, the Journal officiel made public the verdict of guilty passed by the Procurator General Grandperret, who charged a number of persons, including Flourens, with complicity in the fictitious plot. On the same day, La Gaulois alleged that Flourens, who was at that time in England, had been persecuted by the British police and thus forced to go into hiding.—505, 522, 558
[647] On 2 April 1870, Der Volksstaat, edited by Liebknecht, began the publication of Engels' work The Peasant War in Germany. A serious blunder was made by the editorial board when printing Chapter II: on 4 May, the newspaper featured the end of this chapter, while the preceding page had been left out and appeared only on 7 May with the editorial board's note: 'The excerpt contained in today's issue was to have appeared before the part published in the last issue. This vexing error was caused by the absence of our type-setter who is responsible for imposing the issue (this type-setter is away on an agitation tour).' Engels is referring to Liebknecht's footnote on Hegel that appeared in Der Volksstaat on 30 April 1870.—509, 513
[648] Marx gives Engels an account of Liebknecht's letter of 7 May 1870, in which Liebknecht invited Engels, through Marx, to the Stuttgart Congress of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party scheduled for 4-7 June 1870.— 511, 513, 519
[649] This letter, written after 7 May 1870, has not been found.— 511, 519
[650] A reference to a suggestion by Bebel and Liebknecht that the annual congress of the International Working Men's Association should be held in 1870 in Germany, either in Mainz or Mannheim. Liebknecht wrote to Marx about this on 7 May 1870. On 9 May, the Brunswick Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party sent the General Council an official proposal to hold the congress in Germany.— 511, 515
[636] The Commission for the Publication of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland was set up by the British Government in 1852 (see Note 481).—501, 519, 520
[656] On 16 March 1870, Der Volksstaat, No. 22, carried Borkheim's article 'Ein Brief Netschajeffs' (in German, with a Russian translation made by Borkheim himself). The article was signed 'Der Autor der Russischen Briefe in der Berliner Zukunft'. Russischen Briefe was the name of Borkheim's articles about Russia featured by Die Zukunft in 1869-70 (see Note 274). On 14 May the editorial board of Der Volksstaat published the opening passages of Nechayev's reply, which is what Marx is writing about to Engels.— 519, 521
[658] Marx sent Engels an anonymous article 'Das Treiben der deutschen Kommunisten' from the American newspaper Der Pionier of 27 April 1870. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper, which was published in New York by German petty-bourgeois democratic émigrés, was Karl Heinzen. The author of the article, who was obviously concerned about the successes of the newly-founded Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany and its newspaper Der Volksstaat, made libellous statements about Marx, Engels, Liebknecht and Eccarius, contrasting communists and the 'German revolutionary democracy'. Specifically, with reference to Lassalle, the article stated that in 1849 he had made all the necessary preparations for an uprising in Cologne but that Marx, who had promised to do the same in Düsseldorf and certain other localities, had failed to do so thus letting Lassalle down. In this letter, Marx refers to Heinzen as Heineke, a character in the German song of the same name, which is a folk parody of the so-called grobian literature of the 16th century. Marx thus nicknamed Heinzen for the first time in 1847 in his work Moralising Criticism and Critical Morality, in which he likened Heinzen's journalism to specimens of this brand of literature (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 312-40).—522, 524
[663] A reference to Otto Meissner's letter to Marx of 25 June 1870, in which he informed Marx that he was planning to make the final payment for the first edition of Volume One of Capital in August 1870.— 527, 529