Letter to Friedrich Engels, February 24, 1851

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 24 February 1851


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 1, 1929
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 38, pp. 297-299


TO ENGELS IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 24 February 1851
28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

It is now one o'clock in the morning. About an hour ago Pieper came rushing in, hatless, dishevelled, his clothing in tatters. This is what had happened.

Earlier this evening the meeting or banquet took place in the City. Willich presided. Jones, in accordance with his promise, didn't go. Our dear[1] was wearing a red armlet. Some 700 men were present, 150 Frenchmen, about 250 Germans, 200 Chartists and the remainder Poles and Hungarians. Blanc read out the addresses received from his brethren in Paris, Willich one from La Chaux-de-Fonds. There was none from Germany. An address from Poles in Paris was also read.

The speeches were, it seems, ludicrous and, despite all the fraternité, the sweat of tedium beaded men's brows and lamed their tongues.

Schramm[2] and Pieper had bought tickets in order to watch the fun. They were molested from the very start. Schramm went across to one of the stewards, the worthy, chivalrous Landolphe, and begged him to ensure that, in return for their money, they should at least be left in peace. The worthy fellow replied that this was not the place to embark on explanations.

BY AND BY the Great Windmill Streeters[3] began to grow restive. They set up a shout of, 'SPY, SPY', Haynau, Haynau,[4] whereupon Schramm and Pieper were man-handled out of the hall, their hats torn off; in the courtyard outside the hall they were kicked, stamped on, cuffed, nearly rent in pieces, handfuls of hair torn out, etc. Barthélémy came up and said of Schramm: C'est un infâme! Il faut l'écraser.[5] Schramm replied: Vous êtes un forçat libéré![6] Some 200 individuals took part in the scuffle, Germans, Frenchmen, and, no less 'plucky', the fraternal gentry,[7] against two unarmed men.

Post festum who should arrive but our dear; instead of intervening energetically however, as behoved him, he stammered something about knowing these people and would have launched into long explanations. A fine remedy, of course, at such a moment.

The two defended themselves as bravely as lions.

The Windmillers yelled: 'It was him who stole 19 shillings from our cash box!'

So much for today. Qu'en dis-tu, mon cher?[8] If revolution breaks out in London tomorrow, Willich-Barthélemy will assuredly come to power.

Incidentally, in our dealings with our dear—for he will seek to come back as soon as he has done with this great historical event[9] —we must assume an air of superiority and make him feel that he has 'lost'.

Apropos! Harney has had himself elected to a Chartist deputation to Church Street, whence, having made his entrée, he will repair to the City, where he will make himself at home.

Since, incidentally, there was nothing naive about his action, it follows that he arranged everything with the bel homme behind my back and was no less reticent towards yourself.

Your
K. M.

  1. ↑ Harney
  2. ↑ Conrad Schramm
  3. ↑ The London German Workers' Educational Society (see Note 52) had its premises in Great Windmill Street.
  4. ↑ These cries were used at the meeting to get those present to deal with Pieper and Schramm in the same way as the workers of the Barclay, Perkins & Co. did with the Austrian Field Marshal Julius Haynau, who directed the suppression of the revolution in Italy and Hungary. Haynau was attacked by workers during a visit to Britain in September 1850.
  5. ↑ He's infamous! He must be crushed.
  6. ↑ You're an ex-convict!
  7. ↑ Fraternal Democrats
  8. ↑ What do you say to that, dear friend?
  9. ↑ In the original Marx used the term Haupt- und Staatsaktion ('principal and spectacular action', 'main and state action') which has a double meaning. First, in the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century, it denoted plays performed by German touring companies. Second, this term can denote major political events. It was used in this sense by a trend in German historical writing known as 'objective historiography', of which Leopold Ranke was one of the chief representatives, regarding Haupt- und Staatsaktion as history's main subject-matter.