Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 7, 1855

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 7 December 1855


First published considerably 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 for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 7 December 1855 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Frederic,

Jones does not appear to be in London. At least, I haven't had an answer, either oral or written, to an urgent written enquiry.[1]

Thus, since my arrival here, I have been incarcerated within 4 walls which, after all, I can't spend the whole day haranguing. But just now it would be too risky to venture out of doors.

The document[2] did not go off to the Union Bank until the day before yesterday. The delay was caused by all sorts of little things.

No reply yet from America, i.e. New York. The gentlemen would appear to be 'deliberating'.[3] No letter from Washington, but a Wecker and with it a note, patently by Cluss, attacking Schimmelpfennig. Alas, I used up the Wecker during an unconsidered moment in a place where 'hard words, soft paper, etc' It contained the assertion that the Germans in America were UTILITARIANS and pursued 'bread-and-butter' because 'Mr Marx is an economist and an abstruse one'. But in Mr Marx's case this could be attributed to the 'Old Testament'. 'By a well-known trick' he had 'turned "our relations" into a philosophical system'. That thoughtful young Germans in America should follow his lead was attributable to the fact that Germans are accustomed 'to echo clever writers belonging to the nation of the Old Testament etc'

Since ABOUT the time of my return here, the Advertiser has been the arena for a cockfight between Herzen and an anonymous antagonist. His antagonist reproaches him with being a humbug and having passed himself off as a kind of Russian Silvio Pellico.[4]

Even the title of his book is said to be a lie, inasmuch as he has never been in Siberia, etc. Feeble reply from Herzen[5] : the title was humbug on the PUBLISHER'S part, he [Herzen] had not been responsible for it and had immediately protested in the Globe[6] against the attributes wrongly ascribed to him, etc. Whereupon his antagonist came forth again (yesterday) and gave evidence of fresh lies, also in respect of the Globe.[7] Besides this attack, however, there was also a DEFENCE put up by an Englishman[8] . Even if Herzen had not been in Siberia and was no Russian Silvio Pellico, his book was nevertheless amusing, an innocuous book: *'an honest man, look you, and soon dasht! He is a marvellous good neighbour in sooth; and a very good bowler; but, for Alisander, alas, you see, how 'tis.' *[9] Finally, the TUB-TUB PAPER, as is its wont, declared that the contest was becoming too personal, etc., was now over and closed its columns to it.[10] At all events this skirmish—even though the assailants were hardly brilliant—will do Herzen a great deal of harm in the eyes of the COCKNEYS.

Lina[11] has informed me of some fresh details concerning the Cologne trial. The list of jurymen given in my pamphlet[12] quite wrong, of course. Throughout the trial one of the jurymen—Joest—drew caricatures of the accused, and passed the drawings round in court. During the first week the worthy jeune Saedt always had a dagger lying in front of him. At length the ironical laughter of the accused compelled him to 'wear the dagger under his gown'.[13] Can one imagine a more affected COXCOMB? Saedt with a dagger! C'est à crever de rire![14]

Burgers whiles away his time sending Mrs Daniels 'endless amounts of paper'. Also writes poetry. Exchanges not a word with his fellow-sufferer.

A London daily PENNY PAPER, The Telegraph, is said to have already dropped a number of HINTS about the underhand dealings of Dr Freund and his fellow-swindler, a military man.

The 2 articles received.[15]

Salut.

Your

K. M.

I almost forgot the most important point. A few weeks ago, 3 I THINK, Zitschke came to see my wife. The conversation turned to Mirbach.[16] QUOTH Zitschke: 'That old loafer had a splendid chance of a passage. I had thought him long since at sea. Then I found him sitting again at a table in Bibra's pothouse and looking very down-at-heel.' Liebknecht, too, claims to have seen him recently.

  1. ↑ See previous letter.
  2. ↑ Presumably concerning Mrs Marx's inheritance (see this volume, p. 526).
  3. ↑ See next letter.
  4. ↑ 'To the Editor of The Morning Advertiser signed 'One who had been deceived', The Morning Advertiser, 29 November 1855.
  5. ↑ A. Herzen, 'My Exile in Siberia. To the Editor of The Morning Advertiser, The Morning Advertiser, 1 December 1855.
  6. ↑ A. Herzen, 'To the Editor of the Globe, The Globe and Traveller, 25 October 1855.
  7. ↑ 'Mr Herzen's Case' (letter signed 'deceived'), The Morning Advertiser, 6 December 1855.
  8. ↑ [E. Reeve,] 'To the Editor of The Morning Advertiser signed 'Content and not deceived', ibid.
  9. ↑ Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, V, 2.
  10. ↑ An Editors' Statement was published in The Morning Advertiser on 6 December 1855.
  11. ↑ Caroline Schöler
  12. ↑ K. Marx, Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne.
  13. ↑ from F. Schiller, Die Bürgschaft
  14. ↑ It's enough to make you split your sides with laughter.
  15. ↑ Engels' two articles for the New-York Daily Tribune were sent to the USA by the steamer Asia, which sailed from Liverpool and reached Halifax on 19 December. The newspaper published the first article as a leader entitled 'The State of the War' on 21 December 1855 and the second also as a leader, 'The War in Asia', on 26 December 1855. Engels' authorship of these articles was established during the preparation of this volume
  16. ↑ See this volume, p. 560.