Letter to Wilhelm Wolff, August 6, 1851

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 6 August 1851


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934. Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 38

TO WILHELM WOLFF IN LONDON

Manchester, 6 August 1851

Dear Lupus,

I shall make inquiries here about Mr Kendall this very day, and let you know tomorrow what I find out about him. Were I to approach him myself at this stage, before he has given you an answer, and some indication that he is considering you, the only result would be that he would dismiss me very coolly and with inadequate information. These GENTLEMEN are extremely formal. Not long ago Hain also applied to this same Kendall for a post and promptly mentioned my name, yet Kendall did not think it worth the trouble to approach me for information about him-if, after this incident, I were to importune Kendall, this could only do you harm. As soon as you have an answer from Kendall, let me know and tell me what he writes; I'll then at once go to him and find out everything I can, and shall do my best to make him well disposed towards you. Of course, if it were not for Hassenpflug's warrants against you, you would be engaged straight away. But even so, all will probably be well. If I could somehow procure you a position here it would be splendid, but unfortunately I have too few acquaintances in this LINE, and only in modern languages is there permanent employment for private tutors, and of these there are enough. I shall see, by the way, about setting Watts in motion-the fellow is in the EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT[1] and now has a mass of connections.

Your

F. E.


In future, wet the glue on your ENVELOPES more thoroughly-your letter arrived open.

  1. ↑ By educational movement Engels means the attempts of the Christian socialists and bourgeois radicals in Britain in the late 1840s and early 1850s to divert the working class from independent political struggle by means of various educational and associated institutions (schools, libraries, etc.). Moral force---the name given in the political vocabulary of the time to peaceful, non-revolutionary methods of carrying out social and political reforms. From the 1830s to the 1850s the moral force supporters included Right-wing Chartists oriented towards collaboration with the bourgeois radicals. Engels made the acquaintance of John Watts during his stay in England in 1842-44 and assessed his part in disseminating Robert Owen's socialist ideas in his 'Letters from London' (see present edition, Vol. 3, pp. 385-89).