Letter to William Cyples, July 22, 1856

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 22 July 1856


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Reproduced from the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO WILLIAM CYPLES[1]

IN SHEFFIELD

[Draft]

[London,] 22 July 1856

Dear Sir,

I write again myself to show that I bear not the least ill will against you for which, indeed, there would be no cause. In your

[2]

letter d.d. July 19,[3] you say: 'It could not be satisfactory etc' Now as to my own satisfaction please to leave it altogether out of the question. As to Mr Ironside's 'satisfaction' I'll quote you the exact words of his 'note'.[4] Having told you, that already the first article had overdosed him, he continues as follows:

'They' (Dr Marx's articles) 'are entombing the paper. This must not be. They must be brought to a close forthwith. You must not have more than two more doses—this week and the next. You had better write him at once to that effect.'

I positively decline making myself guilty of manslaughter by administering another 'dose' to Mr Isaac Ironside and 'entombing' him in the sheets of his own paper.

Yours etc.

Dr K. M.

  1. ↑ This letter was written in reply to one from William Cyples, a member of the Sheffield Free Press staff, which Marx reproduced, together with his reply, in a letter to Engels on 28 July 1856. Marx's relations with the newspaper had been complicated by the arbitrary changes made by the editors in his Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century, which soon led him to stop publication of the work in this paper (see Note 61). The letter was first published in English as part of Marx's letter to Engels of 28 July 1856 in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx. 1844 bis 1883. Herausgegeben von A. Bebel und Ed. Bernstein. Verlag von J. H. W. Dietz, Bd. II, Stuttgart, 1913.—58, 62
  2. ↑ K. Marx, Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century. - b This paragraph is crossed out in the original. - c Here the following passage is crossed out in the manuscript: 'There are to follow some English pamphlets belonging to the epoch of Peter I; having thus made the reader familiar 1) [with] the infamies of English diplomacy, 2) with the protest [...]. From one of these despatches you will see how England conspired with Russia to crush [...]. These despatches will form a more eloquent introduction to [...].'
  3. ↑ See this volume, p. 60.
  4. ↑ Below Marx quotes from a non extant letter by Ironside to Cyples.