Letter to Karl Marx, May 11, 1857

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 May 1857


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 for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

[Manchester,] Monday, 11 May 1857

My dear Moor,

I return Lassalle's letter herewith. Effery eench the puerile Jew. What a pretty compilation it must be, likewise the thing that is going to 'set things alight' and about which he is so mysterious.[1]

We know, of course, that there is nothing to the fellow but it is difficult to find any positive reason for breaking with him, particularly as we have heard nothing further from the Düsseldorf workers.[2] From this letter he would appear to have ceased all intercourse with them, or rather they with him, since he finds nothing positive to say about how things are going with the workers in Germany. But whether he wouldn't again make use of a letter from you to regain some kudos in their eyes is another matter. In your place I should write to him—you can't very well do otherwise—but ask him outright how things stand with the workers' movement on the Rhine and especially in Düsseldorf, so

working your letter that he will keep his mouth shut about it and must either plus ou moins[3] declare himself or be deterred from corresponding with you. Lupus was much amused by the letter but our discussion on the subject was interrupted. I should, by the way, also make a point of asking him how he comes to slip your letters into the hands of the police.

There is absolutely nothing to say about Persia; the campaign itself was rotten and the accounts are even more so. There was, of course, something to be said about China on the arrival of the last MAIL as there still is, but now, ten days after the last MAIL, it's too late to do anything. So I shall wait until the next MAIL arrives, when I shall at once set to work so that the article[4] will reach you in time for Friday or the following Tuesday. As far as possible, then, make your arrangements accordingly. I think the MAIL arrives at the end of this week.

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE CHILDREN? I trust little Jenny is ALL RIGHT again. Warm regards to them all and also to your wife.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ While working on Die Philosophie Herakleitos des Dunklen von Ephesos, Lassalle was also writing a historical drama, Franz von Sickingen. In a letter to Marx on 26 April 1857 he said that it would in a sense 'set things alight'.—129
  2. ↑ See this volume, pp. 24 25.
  3. ↑ more or less
  4. ↑ F. Engels, 'Persia—China'.