Letter to Karl Marx, October 19, 1857

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 19 October 1857


First published abridged in Der Briefwech-sel 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[1]

IN LONDON

[St. Hélier,] Jersey, 19 October 1857

3 Edward Place

Dear Marx,

Herewith the BALANCE of the old sins of omission, also the original notes on the Armada. I couldn't quite decipher some of the names, which you will have to try and fill in. 34 I am now going on to the HISTORY OF CANNON.

Schramm seems to me to be getting rather worse, though his condition changes from day to day. At present he has Berger[2]

with him, a philistine sent by his brother,[3] who has taken lodgings in the same house and to whom he is giving English lessons. He's a dirty-minded old Prussian who tells lewd jokes devoid of wit about all the court rabble in Berlin, que le diable l'einporte![4] I haven't seen FRIEND Harney for a week. He's awfully stupid and feels very COMFORTABLE indeed in his philistine role here, although even on his PAPER[5] he is clearly subject to the owner's censorship. He anticipates, of course, that sooner or later the English workers will do something or other, but that it won't be at all in the Chartist line, and anyway what he says is so much theoretical hot air and he would undoubtedly detest being jolted out of his petty philistine agitation here. HE IS VERY BUSY, BUT BUSY DOING NOTHING. His friend the GROCER, who thrashed the French spy,[6] has been fined £5.

Besides the HISTORY OF CANNON, I intend to do a few of the shorter things and send them to you from time to time so that Dana may see that we're keeping the ball rolling. But do send me those notes about which I wrote to you, and the list of military articles for D. I presume you got the letter containing the copy of the C list,[7] and also the article 'Military Bridges'[8] sent off later.

I have firmly resolved to return to Manchester in a fortnight's time. Business has taken a very nasty turn and it's important for

me to be there. Moreover, my health is now good; yesterday, I spent 7 hours in the saddle, and I have also bidden farewell to virtue.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ The letter is written on notepaper bearing a picture of a cave on the Grève au Lançon in Jersey.—190
  2. ↑ Engels means Hermann Buck.
  3. ↑ Rudolf Schramm
  4. ↑ the devil take him!
  5. ↑ The Jersey Independent
  6. ↑ Lemoine
  7. ↑ Engels refers to the list of articles beginning witii 'C for The New American Cyclopaedia which Dana sent Marx. Neidier the list nor Engels' comments on it have been preserved.—189, 190
  8. ↑ F. Engels, 'Bridge, Military'.