Letter to Karl Marx, February 19, 1852

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 19 February 1852


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


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 19 February 1852

Dear Marx,

Despite tremendous efforts—your letter only arrived this morning—I have still not finished the article for Dana[1] and it is now 11 o'clock at night. I have received the Bauer[2] —it is coming in very useful. In return, and whatever happens, you will receive 2 articles for Dana for next Tuesday's STEAMER. Since your letters reach Weydemeyer and mine don't, I'd be glad if you would forthwith dispatch the enclosed note to W.[3] in one of your own. It's an altogether curious business. It seems that two or three of my letters to my old man have also failed to reach him. Cela n'est pas clair.[4]

Tell Jones he will be getting something from me next week, or write him a note to that effect. God knows why so many snags should crop up all at once and prevent me from getting down to anything. But on Saturday and Sunday I shall shut myself away, and then I hope to get something done.[5]

Why doesn't that accursed Weydemeyer enclose Simon's article[6] so that we can attend to it ourselves? A stinging counter-article would soon show Dana that nothing is to be gained by accepting articles that attack us.

Your

F. E.

Write some time giving me the exact address under which you have written to Weydemeyer.

  1. ↑ F. Engels, 'England'.
  2. ↑ B. Bauer, Der Untergang des Frankfurter Parlaments.
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 39 40.
  4. ↑ It's not clear (Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le mariage de Figaro, Act. V, Scene 16).
  5. ↑ Between February and early April 1852, in compliance with Jones' request, Engels wrote for his journal Notes to the People a series of articles, the first of which was entitled 'Real Causes Why the French Proletarians Remained Comparatively Inactive in December Last' (see present edition, Vol. 11). Jones received it on 5 February 1852
  6. ↑ L. Simon's 'Movements of the German Political Exiles', New York Daily Tribune, No. 3369, 4 February 1852. See also this volume, p. 37.