Letter to Karl Marx, February 17, 1852

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 17 February 1852


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

[Manchester,] 17 February 1852

Dear Marx,

You will be furious with me for being so cursory, but I'll be damned if I know whether I'm coming or going, what with all this work and COMMERCE. Voici les faits:[1] 1. Charles[2] has gone to Germany and has left me not only with all his own work, but also with a nice little residue of tasks left undone at the year's end; 2. Last year's balance sheet shows a definite loss for my old man which may be a good lesson for him, but means that I am inundated with an unholy mass of vexations, calculations, and jobs of various kinds; 3. One of the Ermens[3] has given notice of termination and you can imagine the intrigues and correspondence which that brings in its train. Enough: this evening I shall be stuck in the office until 8 and, instead of being able to write to you at greater length, still have to write a letter to my old man and take it to the POST OFFICE before twelve o'clock tonight; tomorrow evening I must do something for Jones[4] and the day after tomorrow I shall see to it that I finish an article for the Tribune.[5] For the present there can be no thought of spare time before 7 or 8 in the evening, and the worst of it is that, for some time to come, I shall have to devote my whole attention to filthy commerce, otherwise everything will go wrong here and my old man will cut off my SUPPLIES.

You will have received the £2. I hope to hear from you soon, even if I don't have sufficient leizure to answer your last letter at length.

According to today's Daily News Louis Napoleon is certain to exhume Kaspar Hauser and to claim succession to the throne of Baden through his Aunt Stephanie. Voilà de grandes nouvelles pour le citoyen Seiler dont l'étoile va se lever incessamment.[6] Could you not persuade Kaspar Hauser's great historian[7] to write to Louis Napoleon and offer him his important sources on this matter? Il y a là de quoi faire un grand coup.[8]

Your

F. E.

How is it that Weydemeyer sends no word? If a letter doesn't arrive by the Arctic tomorrow morning, I shall despair; something must have gone wrong. So far as I know, he has not written since 5 January, or at least I have heard nothing.

  1. ↑ Here are the facts.
  2. ↑ Roesgen
  3. ↑ Gottfried
  4. ↑ F. Engels, 'Real Causes Why the French Proletarians Remained Comparatively Inactive in December Last', I.
  5. ↑ for the series Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany
  6. ↑ That's great news for Citizen Seiler, whose star will be constantly in the ascendant
  7. ↑ An allusion to Sebastian Seiler's work Kaspar Hauser, der Thronerbe von Baden.
  8. ↑ A great deal could be made of that.