Letter to Friedrich Engels, May 6, 1854

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 6 May 1854


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXII, Moscow, 1929
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 6 May 1854 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

Unfortunately your 'DISPATCH'[1] did not arrive yesterday until the post office had closed, and the LETTER could not be sent to New York even against payment of the customary shilling.

The Pole Miskowsky—vide the 'Knight of the Noble'—has come to a very bad end. The poor devil had long been in the most wretched circumstances, had never succeeded in raising the wherewithal for the trip to Constantinople—AS HE WAS NOT ONE OF THE 'MINIONS' OF THE 'GOVERNOR'[2] —and had thus sunk to being a lumpen-proletarian in Whitechapel to whom we in the WEST END FROM TIME TO TIME sent some small aid. A few days ago the pauvre diable,[3] together with six other refugees, was burned alive in the wooden shack he occupied with them in Whitechapel.[4] First you're reduced to beggary, then you starve, and finally you're burnt to death; what more can you expect in this 'best of worlds'!

Since Wiss, Doctor of Universal Wisdom, had launched in the Republik der Arbeiter A FURIOUS ONSLAUGHT on our 'corrupt ideas' and mindless 'frivolity',[5] I thought it fitting to obtain from Edgar Bauer, whom I see from time to time—a rendez-vous invariably followed by a hangover—some information on this lumen mundi,[6] now a shareholder in Weitling's stables of bliss. Briefly, this is what I learned there:

Mr Wiss apparently arrived in Berlin shortly after your time.[7] He was a vain youth with a marked aversion for 'POSITIVE' knowledge, which is why he never succeeded in passing his medical examinations and threw himself passionately into the universal wisdom which was concentrated in Stehely's.[8] Initially a Brunoist[9] and then a Stirnerian, he became a member of Edgar Bauer's society of 'The Free',[10] was much interested in the emancipation of women, and resolved to become 'frivolous'. In pursuance of this aim he tumbled the landlady with whom he lodged—a midwife. The midwife then set to work on the 'frivolous' one's conscience, bemoaning the loss of her 'LESSER WALLACHIA' which damage Wiss, le bonhomme,[11] helped make good by cohabiting with her in 'free' marriage. Much though she esteemed Mr Wiss' money-bag, the midwife thought no less highly of the 'natural' bag of a certain working man, a lusty mechanic who lodged in the same house. Here again the great Wiss helped make good the damage by permitting the working man to work the machinery while reserving for himself the pleasure of ennobling the resulting product with the name of 'Proudhon-Fourier Wiss' and, whenever the name Proudhon was mentioned in the society of The Free, it was not the one in Paris they meant but the mechanic's OFFSPRING christened by Wiss.

Since Mr Wiss spent a great deal of money, learned nothing, and extolled free marriage, his worthy papa ceased to honour his bills, after which he lived on minor literature à la Meyen and loans made to him on his espérances[12] by philanthropists in Berlin. Came the revolution. Wiss became a popular orator, and one of the vice-chairmen of the democratic club, helped in by Edgar Bauer. Next he became a contributor to the Reform but so dim was his light that even Ruge hid it under a bushel. Au bout du compte[13] Wiss hastily assumed an 'ironical attitude' to the revolution, married his midwife in bourgeois-ecclesial fashion, made things up with his old man and, together with midwife and Proudhon-Fourier Wiss, departed with his tail between his legs for America where he is prospering as a doctor, philosopher and member of the communia.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ F. Engels, 'News from the European Contest'.
  2. ↑ Lajos Kossuth
  3. ↑ poor devil
  4. ↑ Whitechapel—a district in London where many foreign emigrants lived. The fire mentioned in this letter happened in Whitechapel on 29 April 1854
  5. ↑ E. Wiß, 'Die elementaren Richtungen der Zeit', Republik der Arbeiter, No. 15, 8 April 1854. The article was published in instalments from March to June 1854.
  6. ↑ light of the world
  7. ↑ Engels lived in Berlin as an army volunteer from September 1841 to about late September 1842
  8. ↑ Here Marx has in mind the patrons of Stehely's confectionery in Berlin in the 1840s, radical-minded men of letters, students and members of 'The Free' (see Note 535)
  9. ↑ supporter of Bruno Bauer
  10. ↑ The Free'—a group of Berlin Young Hegelians which came into being in the first half of 1842. Among its principal members were Bruno Bauer, Edgar Bauer, Edward Meyen, Ludwig Buhl and Max Stirner. The system existing in the country was criticised by 'The Free' in an abstract manner, their statements were devoid of real revolutionary content, their ultra-radical form often compromised the democratic movement. Many of 'The Free' renounced radicalism in the following years. For a criticism of 'The Free' see K. Marx and F. Engels, The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Criticism (present edition, Vol. 4)
  11. ↑ the worthy fellow
  12. ↑ expectations
  13. ↑ in the end