| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 18 March 1857 |
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
London, 18 March [1857] 9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill
Dear Engels,
You must excuse me for not having acknowledged receipt of the £5 or of your letter before now. My wife is very unwell and our domestic arrangements generally are in such a state of crisis that I am quite bemused and cannot write.
Guardians received today. No answer yet from the New-York Tribune. The only thing I could say to Olmsted, of course, was that if he had failed to place the article[1] with Harper, he should send it back.
Proudhon's new book on economics, not yet to hand, has already run into 7 editions.[2]
How Miquel could believe I could write for the Jahrhundert is beyond my comprehension—a weekly rag whose contributors are Rüge, L. Simon, Meyen, B. Oppenheim, M. Hess, etc. I haven't read any of it but have seen the cover of No. 1, Vol. 2, on which is printed the following list of contents: 'Nach dem Kriege, vor der Entscheidung. IV. Von Arnold Rüge'. 'Briefe aus Paris, der Schweiz und London' (i.e., L. Simon, Kolatschek, Meyen). 'Der Geist unserer Zeit; zum Neujahrsgruss. Von Arnold Rüge'. 'Naturwissenschaft und Gesellschaftslehre. V. Von M. Hess'. 'Erziehung zum Glauben und Erziehung zur Humanität'. 'Notiz'.
Edgar Bauer is putting out a book, Englische Eindrücke}'[3] Should be splendid.
I shall find out the price of Mieroslawski's and LelewePs books (the latter's first volume nothing but a children's history).[4]
Concerning the blackguard—Bob Lowe—I have no information at present, but might find out something this week. He's the kind of fellow who would have been at home in the Société du dix Décembre.[5]
Every day brings fresh revelations about Pam's 'liberal' foreign policy. First, the 'SECRET TREATY' with Austria.[6] Now, the fact that he has given Bonaparte his word to suppress any kind of revolution in Naples. The latter, however, wanted this done only in so far as a 'Murat' restoration 140 was not subsumed under the heading 'revolution'. It was this 'MISUNDERSTANDING' which scuppered the Naples expedition.[7] In the COMMONS yesterday Pam denied the charge in a very 'AMBIGUOUS MANNER'.[8] But this week is likely to see the appearance of further documents which will give him the lie.
The Russians haven't acted with quite their usual circumspection this time. The first Continental paper since the crisis in Parliament[9] to defend Pam as a 'TRULY BRITISH MINISTER' 141
is the Nord, which usually affects a fanatical hatred of Pam. Even the Neue Preussische Zeitung speaks of 'UNPRINCIPLED COALITION'.
The Persian affair has fizzled out as I supposed: England has gained nothing, apart from a few nominal concessions; rather she has given way to the Persian court on the main issue.[10] Russia, on the other hand, has obtained a small piece of territory, as Layard yesterday confided to the gaping COCKNEYS. Needless to say, he did not have the courage to place these two FACTS in their correct causal nexus. He also repeated the assertion (already made by Disraeli in the Lower House without eliciting a word from Pam in reply) that, during the war with Russia, Pam forbade the Persians to take an offensive stand against the Russians as had been their intention. For at the time the fellows had hopes of recapturing the provinces that had been wrested from them. He had had the same admonition conveyed to them at the time of the Polish revolution (1830).
In order to assess correctly the Persian, as also the Chinese fracas, both should be compared with Pam's earlier doings in these REGIONS, since both are merely repetitions.[11] So long as he was at the helm, the first Chinese war was conducted in such a way that it could have gone on for 100 years without any result save an increase in the RUSSIAN OVERLAND TEA-TRADE and a growth of Russian influence in Pekin. It was only under Sir Robert Peel that this war was given an 'English' twist by Ellenborough.
It is to be hoped—and is indeed probable—that this time a parliament will be returned which will pledge itself to nothing save passive obedience to Pam. The dissolution of the former parties expressed as a coalition ministry, like that of Aberdeen,[12] seemed rather to make the MIDDLE CLASS feel able to rest on its laurels than to alarm it. This same dissolution expressed as Pam's dictatorship is bound to lead, not only to the most gratifying fiascos and complications abroad, but also to the most violent agitation if not to revolution at home. The old boy, who was partly responsible for the Manchester massacre en miniature[13] and helped to draw up the 6 'GAGGING ACTS', won't so much as turn a hair. Mutatis mutandis, Pam's DICTATORSHIP will be to the coalition ministry what the rule of the Royalists, who coalesced in the last French Assemblée, was to the rule of Bonaparte. In England, things will at last be brought to a head.
Apropos Bangya. Since 1855 this same Bangya has been Sefer Pasha's adlatus.[14] He has married the daughter of a Circassian chief (which must be equally gratifying to his lawful wife in Pest and his unlawful one in Paris), and is now himself a Circassian chief. Through his connections in London he has recruited 300 Poles and shipped them to the BLACK SEA together with supplies of ammunition, etc. According to the news in the papers, they have run the gauntlet of the Russian CRUISERS and safely reached Sefer Pasha. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT? The fellow, realising that his role was played out in the West, has embarked on a new one in the Orient. Whether again as a democratic mouchard[15] or in good faith is another question.
Write soon, as your letters are now essential TO [help me] PLUCK
UP. The SITUATION is horrible.
Salut (to Lupus as well).
Your
K. M.