Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, March 16, 1859

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	16 March 1859

First published in F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Bd. III, Stuttgart-Berlin 1922
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40

MARX TO FERDINAND LASSALLE

IN BERLIN

London, 16 March 1859

9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park,

Haverstock Hill

Dear Lassalle,

Your latest work^[1] and accompanying letter have not yet arrived, nor are they to be here so soon. Despatch through publisher's channels is about as expeditious as if you were to send me the things via Petersburg, Kamchatka and North America.

If it's not too late, get them to print 'THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION IS RESERVED' on the last manuscript I sent you. Otherwise some of the German clowns over here might massacre the thing.

Owing to circumstances which I can't go into today (for I am dictating an article in English^[2] while writing this note to you), I am very hard pressed for money. Might it be possible for you to carry out some sort of bill transaction for me in Berlin having a currency of a few weeks, in return for which you could subsequently take the fee Duncker owes me?

Yesterday I had a visitor from Paris, a man by whose judgment I set tremendous store. Speaking of war,^[3] he said: Il n'y a pas deux opinions à Paris. Nous avons la guerre.^[4] He was quite convinced that, were Bonaparte to draw back, he would crack up and, LIKE the Empereur Soulouque, would be betrayed by the army itself. Even the Parisian bourgeois, though rabid for peace, are already beginning to mutter that the fellow has no more courage than Louis Philippe.

There's one factor, by the by, which you must not overlook; Russia is stirring up the whole thing, and her ally, Palmerston (you only have to look at The Times) is doing all he can to drive Bonaparte to war. On top of that there'll soon be a change of ministry here, and then Palmerston will run the thing direct.^[5]

The pro-Poerio, etc., demonstrations here are wholly inspired by him. He has placed his son-in-law, Lord Shaftesbury, at the head of these, AS RESPONSIBLE EDITOR.

I am now, AFTER ALL, beginning to believe that the war might hold out some prospects for us as well.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

Don't forget, by the by, that if you write to me about certain conditions,^[6] it will benefit a vast public, amongst whom a great many Germans. The Tribune numbers some 200,000 regular subscribers.

↑ Franz von Sickingen
↑ K. Marx, 'The War Prospect in Prussia'.
↑ This refers to the war preparations of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and France against Austria. The war (29 April to 8 July 1859) was launched by Napoleon III, who under the banner of the 'liberation of Italy' strove for aggrandizement and needed a successful military campaign to shore up the Bonapartist regime in France. Piedmont ruling circles hoped that French support would enable them to unite Italy under the aegis of the Savoy dynasty. The war caused an upsurge of the national liberation movement in Italy. The Austrian army suffered a series of defeats. However Napoleon III, frightened by the scale of the liberation movement in Italy, abruptly ceased hostilities. On 11 July, the French and Austrian emperors concluded a separate preliminary peace in Villafranca. France received Savoy and Nice; Lombardy was annexed to Sardinia; the Venetian Region remained under the Austrians.—380, 399, 401, 405, 462, 537
↑ 'There's no two opinions about it in Paris. We shall have war.'
↑ Further events showed that Marx's forecast was true. In April 1859 the British Parliament was dissolved and new elections in June 1859 brought to power a government headed by Palmerston, who had been in opposition until then. The ideas expressed by Marx in this and other letters of that period concerning the situation in Europe in view of the maturing military crisis, were developed in his article 'The War Prospect in France' written for the New-York Daily Tribune (see present edition, Vol. 16).—401, 405, 429
↑ i.e., about the position in Germany (see this volume, p. 391)

[1] Franz von Sickingen

[2] K. Marx, 'The War Prospect in Prussia'.

[3] This refers to the war preparations of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and France against Austria. The war (29 April to 8 July 1859) was launched by Napoleon III, who under the banner of the 'liberation of Italy' strove for aggrandizement and needed a successful military campaign to shore up the Bonapartist regime in France. Piedmont ruling circles hoped that French support would enable them to unite Italy under the aegis of the Savoy dynasty. The war caused an upsurge of the national liberation movement in Italy. The Austrian army suffered a series of defeats. However Napoleon III, frightened by the scale of the liberation movement in Italy, abruptly ceased hostilities. On 11 July, the French and Austrian emperors concluded a separate preliminary peace in Villafranca. France received Savoy and Nice; Lombardy was annexed to Sardinia; the Venetian Region remained under the Austrians.—380, 399, 401, 405, 462, 537

[4] 'There's no two opinions about it in Paris. We shall have war.'

[5] Further events showed that Marx's forecast was true. In April 1859 the British Parliament was dissolved and new elections in June 1859 brought to power a government headed by Palmerston, who had been in opposition until then. The ideas expressed by Marx in this and other letters of that period concerning the situation in Europe in view of the maturing military crisis, were developed in his article 'The War Prospect in France' written for the New-York Daily Tribune (see present edition, Vol. 16).—401, 405, 429

[6] .e., about the position in Germany (see this volume, p. 391)

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