Letter to Karl Marx, August 6, 1852

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 6 August 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,] Friday, 6 August 1852

Dear Marx,

You will have got back the first half of the article[1] in English and German yesterday afternoon. The second[2] you shall have on Tuesday morning. As for being thrown out of the Tribune, you need have no worries.[3] We are too firmly ensconced there. Furthermore, to the Yankees, this European politicising is mere dilettantism in which he who writes best and with the greatest esprit comes out on top. Heinzen can do us no harm; if he's bought by the Whigs, it means that he will obey them, not that he will give the orders. Ruge, Bauer, etc., etc., in addition to ourselves ensure that the Tribune has an 'all-round' character. As for protectionism, it does no harm. American Whigs are all industrial protectionists, but this by no means implies that they belong to the landed aristocracy, Derby variety. Nor are they so stupid not to know just as well as does List that FREE TRADE suits English industry better than anything else. By the way, I could at a pinch insert a word here and there to that effect with the FREETRADERS, which you could cross out if not to your liking. But there's really no need for it.

I thought you had long since settled the discounting affair with Johnson and very much hope something will come of it. As for me, I get deeper in the mire financially every day. While I much enjoy having Papa Dronke here, it is impossible to work of an evening, and so a fair amount of money is being frittered away; on top of that there are current DISBURSEMENTS besides £20 owing to the business, which make things very tight. Dronke intends to return next week (at the beginning), after which I shall do a spell of hard work, having sufficient material here, and then, by the end of September, I shall again have some money at my disposal—a few pounds in December[4] for sure. Most unfortunately, in an evil hour Mr Pindar also asked me for a loan. He is still keeping afloat on three lessons a week and seems to have fallen touchingly in love—pauvre garçon, il faut l'avoir vu sous l'empire de l'émotion plus ou moins vierge[5] .

Moreover, towards the end of June I was unable, owing to all sorts of circumstances, to charge up to my old man a number of extras which have now been placed to my account. Meanwhile, we are busy with the balance sheet; actually it is no concern of mine, but it will at least give me some indication of how far I can go. If it turns out well—which I shall know in some 4-6 weeks' time, I might be able to chance something, in which case you will at once receive some money. Only this month, because of the £20 or £25 I owe the business, I am absolutely stuck.

I don't know how I can arrange to do an article on GERMANY for Dana behind Dronke's back—he knows nothing about the matter.[6] At the office I have my hands completely full until 7 o'clock in the evening, so I can't do it there. Cependant je verrai![7]

Warmest regards to your wife and children from

Your

F. E.

Enclosed STAMPS to the value of 9/- and a few pence. Dronke asks me to tell you that he will probably be coming at the beginning of next week.

  1. ↑ K. Marx, 'The Elections in England.—Tories and Whigs'.
  2. ↑ K. Marx, 'The Chartists'.
  3. ↑ See previous letter.
  4. ↑ December in the original.
  5. ↑ poor lad, you ought to see him in the throes of more or less virginal emotion
  6. ↑ The series of articles Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany was published in the New-York Daily Tribune over Marx's signature (see Note 5)
  7. ↑ However, I shall see.