Letter to Friedrich Engels, January 29, 1853

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 29 January 1853


First published slightly abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 1, Berlin, 1929
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 29 January 1853 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

Have received the £3 and the manuscript you returned. You must excuse me for not having written for so long, the explanation being PRESSURE FROM WITHOUT.

About a fortnight ago Willich pushed off to America as Kinkel's agent.

Mrs von Brüningk was buried a few days since. As a result of clumsy manoeuvring by the Parliamentarians Reichenbach and Löwe, and negligence on Imandt's part, the £1,000 have again fallen into the hands of Mr Kinkel in the sense that the money has been deposited in the Bank of England in his name and Reichenbach is to hand over the certificate of deposit to him in May, unless the guarantors should decide otherwise. Such decisions are, of course, now quite worthless.

Mr Bangya has been in Paris for the past three weeks. Liebknecht has obtained a very good post with the Jew Oppenheim. The rest of the folk, Imandt EXCEPTED, still at a loose end.

Schabelitz did not have the pamphlet[1] ready until 11 January. About 6 sheets. But he seems unwilling to send anything to London until the thing has been successfully dispatched to every part of Germany and receipt acknowledged.

The gentlemen in Cologne, notably Daniels, persist in maintaining a dignified silence. The answer to our having subordinated all business to their affair for the space of 4-5 weeks.

In the enclosed cutting from the Arbeiterrepublik[2] (editor Weitling) you will see the venom which this tailor king and dictator of the 'Communia' colony[3] expends upon the communist trial in Cologne and the Marx party and Co.

Yesterday I ventured for the first time to write an article in English for Dana.[4] Pieper made some corrections and, once I have a good grammar and write away gamely, I should do passablement well.

Two apropos:

D'abord Blind is incessantly dunning me for Herzen's book.[5] Second: Don't forget to enclose in your next Reichenbach's circular and his statement of accounts.[6] Dronke needs it to establish himself as a new correspondent.[7]

The state of the winter crops being what it is, I feel convinced that the crisis WILL BECOME DUE. So long as the STAPLE ARTICLE, FOOD, remains tolerably ABUNDANT and cheap, and what with Australia, etc., the thing could have been a long time in coming. Now a STOP will be put to all that. Incidentally, is it not somewhat unusual to find e.g. The Economist[8] vindicating the Bank of England's most recent DISCOUNT REGULATION, on the ground that its purpose is 'TO PREVENT THE EXPORTATION OF CAPITAL'? We know very well what is intended. But could one not trouble one's FREE TRADER'S conscience by asking: Do you also wish to PREVENT 'EXPORTATION OF CAPITAL' in the form OF COTTONS, YARNS, etc.? Why, then, in the form OF GOLD? IS the FREE-TRADE ECONOMY destined to revert to MERCANTILISM pure and simple and regard the EFFLUX AND INFLUX OF GOLD as the nervus rerum?

Since Bonaparte's last speech[9] all the talk in the City has been of war. I have also had a letter from old Ebner in Frankfurt in which he speaks of the terror inspired in Germany's pampered puppets, especially the diplomats in Frankfurt am Main, by Bonaparte's wedding speech. The doltishness of our compatriots was brought home to me yesterday by, inter alia, the Frankfurter Journal in which a correspondent writing from Heidelberg remarks that, what with a propagandist war in the offing and Bonaparte throwing in his lot with 'democracy', the authorities must already be ruing their prosecution of the great Gervinus.[10] I fear that Crapulinski will be hailed as 'friend and saviour' by German peasants and philistines. Apparently the vocation of this burlesque figure is to stand all traditional ranks and parties on their heads and turn them into a laughing-stock.

What is the effect of a bad harvest on an incipient war? Let me know, too, what the position is in the MANUFACTURING DEPARTMENT, particularly in cotton.

Jones' paper[11] is again en ascendant. Cobden's pamphlet[12] and the MANCHESTER PEACE CONFERENCE are, I feel, utterly nonsensical at the present time. So now you know, says Palmerston's journal, The Morning Post, these bourgeois parvenus are totally incapable of governing a country; that's a thing only the aristocracy can do.[13] The Morning Herald publishes a letter addressed to itself and written, or so it asserts, at Bonaparte's own dictation, in which the latter says he would come to England only if the QUEEN needed 200,000 of his 'heroes of order' to combat the perilous growth of democracy. Which democracy, says the Herald, is you, Mr Cobden, you and associates.

Concerning The Times, I have been given the following, fairly reliable, particulars which may be of interest to you:

Mr Walter, MP for Nottingham, is still the PAPER'S constitutional monarch, still its PRINCIPAL SHAREHOLDER. Mr Mowbray Morris is The Times LORD OF EXCHEQUER, its FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL MANAGER—a very adventurous and 'RECKLESS' FELLOW. Mr Delane JUNIOR (a friend of Disraeli's) is SECRETARY FOR THE HOME OFFICE. His father is EDITOR OF THE Morning Chronicle. Mr Dasent is SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. In addition, The Times has A SORT OF PRIVY COUNCIL, the most important member being Mr Lowe, MP for Kidderminster, an albino with pink eyes and white hair. He is said to be very talented and particularly knowledgeable about financial matters. Next to him comes Mr Henry Reeve, an admirer of Orleanist statesmen, who holds a minor post in the STATISTICAL DEPARTMENT of the BOARD OF TRADE. Mr Lawson writes the MONEY ARTICLE, but otherwise has no influence on the direction of the whole.

According to a letter from Zerffi, it is generally believed in Paris that Bonaparte is plotting with the Sultan against Austria and Russia in the Montenegro affair.[14]

Vale faveque

K. Marx

[Note written on an enclosed illustration from an unknown Italian book]

Which Italian town does the above female belong to?

  1. ↑ K. Marx, Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne.
  2. ↑ 'Schlußbemerkung zum Kölner Kommunistenprozeß', Republik der Arbeiter, No. 52, 25 December 1852.
  3. ↑ Communia—a colony founded by Weitling's associates in Iowa (USA) in 1849 to put in practice the principles of Weitling's Utopian communism. The colony ceased to exist in 1853 owing to inner conflicts and financial difficulties
  4. ↑ K. Marx, 'Capital Punishment.— Mr. Cobden's Pamphlet.—Regulations of the Bank of England'.
  5. ↑ A. Herzen, Du développement des idées révolutionnaires en Russie.
  6. ↑ October 1852 of a lithographed statement of accounts and of a statement by Reichenbach who was the treasurer of the so-called German-American revolutionary loan (see Note 27). Reichenbach refused to be in charge of the funds because the idea of the revolutionary loan did not justify itself. Later Marx quoted extracts from Reichenbach's statement in Herr Vogt, 'Appendices', Section 6 'The War between Frogs and Mice' (see present edition, Vol. 17, p. 314)
  7. ↑ See this volume, p. 282.
  8. ↑ 'The Bank of England and the Rate of Discount', The Economist, No. 491, 22 January 1853.
  9. ↑ [Speech of Napoleon III in the Senate on 22 January 1853 on the occasion of his marriage to Eugénie de Montijo,] Le Moniteur universel, No. 23, 23 January 1853.
  10. ↑ At the beginning of 1853 the German liberal historian Professor Gervinus was brought to trial on a charge of incitement to high treason and an attempted breach of the peace in publishing Einleitung in die Geschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, a book which reactionary circles considered an apology for the democratic system and a criticism of monarchy
  11. ↑ The People's Paper
  12. ↑ R. Cobden, 1793 and 1853. In Three Letters.
  13. ↑ 'London, Friday, Jan. 28, 1853' (leader), The Morning Post, No. 24681, 28 January 1853; 'The Peace and Arbitration Conference', The Morning Post, No. 24682, 29 January 1853.
  14. ↑ The reference is to the armed conflict between Turkey and Montenegro which was a vassal possession of the Sultan and sought full independence. In early 1853 Turkish troops invaded Montenegro, but the stance adopted by Russia and pressure from Austria soon compelled the Sultan to withdraw them