Letter to Karl Marx, March 16, 1858

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 16 March 1858


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, 16 March 1858]

Dear Moor,

The letter with enclosure from New York[1] arrived here safely—when I sent off 'Beresford' last week I was in such a hurry that I completely forgot to acknowledge its receipt.

For the same reason I haven't yet been able to see Lupus and at this moment my head is again so full of damned COMMERCE that I can hardly summon what few wits I have, let alone work on Appleton's things. I shall finish 'Bomarsund' and if possible 'Bülow' in time for Friday, i. e. send off 'Bülow' tomorrow if possible, so that you'll have time to add the biographical part; the only sources I have, by the way, are Siborne and Jomini.[2] For 'Bomarsund' I have to refer to the press again; there's nothing further about it in my papers.

Then I'll set to work with a will on 'Cavalry'. Unfortunately I can't lay my hand on anything about the Seven Years War,[3] the heyday of the cavalry. However, nous verrons.[4]

I'm annoyed at being unable to get through the things faster; but the second lot of B's was really a very tiring job and I quite definitely cannot work far into the night without suffering from insomnia for several days afterwards. Two evenings in succession is the maximum I can manage but, all the same, it's easier now than it was in the beginning.

Since Saturday, nothing whatever from Paris in the Guardian.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ See previous letter.
  2. ↑ W. Siborne, History of the War in France and Belgium, in 1815; A. H. Jomini, Vie politique et militaire de Napoléon...
  3. ↑ The Seven Years War (1756-63)—a war of Britain and Prussia against Austria, France, Russia, Saxony and Sweden. As a result of it France ceded many of its colonies (including Canada and almost all its possessions in the East Indies) to Britain, while Prussia, Austria and Saxony were obliged to recognise in the main its pre-war frontiers.—289, 294, 561
  4. ↑ we shall see