Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 14, 1859

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 14 July 1859


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 14 July 1859

DEAR Frederick,

You must have been wondering about my long silence, but there was a perfectly natural explanation for it. During the first week[1]

I had to scurry round like mad in an attempt to get Das Volk into some kind of order, and this week PRIVATE MATTERS obtruded.

WELL. T h e state of the Volk when I got back was as follows: Kinkel had been felled by our latest quips. (Since then I have gone on with the 'GATHERINGS'. 49 In the current issue I'll do this section by myself. Unless, of course, some piece of news gives Biskamp occasion to introduce a few more drolleries.) But at the same time Das Volk showed every sign of disintegrating, and it was doubtful whether it would continue to appear. During my absence debts had been contracted amounting to over £ 6, since the 'agents', printer,[2] old Uncle T o m Cobley and all suspected that my return would put an e n d to the fun. Biskamp was IN THE MOST DEJECTED STATE. He had been given notice by the Kölnische[3] (having been denounced by a competitor); to receive charity from Speck went against the grain, and he had therefore spent several nights camping out in the 'park'. Finally, the printer had been approached by 'genuine democrats, likewise socialists, but moder- ate, and inimical to any kind of personal politics (Blind?)', who were prepared to take over Das Volk and provide the necessary subsidies. SUCH WAS THE GENERAL STATE OF THINGS WHEN I ARRIVED AT LONDON.

First I gave Biskamp £3, at the same time persuading him to accept a schoolmaster's post in Edmonton which, since he won't be required to live in, do any supervision or give more than 4 lessons, will permit him to write just as much for the paper as hitherto. OTHERWISE he would soon have been DISARMED by misfortune and idleness. He is moving there on the first of August. Actually he won't be any further away from London than I am.[4] On the other hand, it will be better for me if he is not present in person when I myself have more to do with the paper, as I intend to do BY and BY. I only paid out £1 5/- for the paper (debts) and compelled Garthe, Speck and a few louts to get together the sum of £3 15/- as part payment for Hollinger. In addition I had to repay Mr Liebknecht the 16/- he had advanced to Hollinger during my absence. Hence £5 1/- had to be expended before 'current' operations began. These included 15/- paid to Carstens,[5] 5/- for rent of the despatch room, 4/- for STAMPS, 2/6d advanced to Mr Hollinger in respect of No. 9. So as you can see, I've pretty well scraped the bottom of the barrel before I've begun. However, if we maintain the pressure for a few more weeks there is every prospect that the Hermann will go under and leave us in complete possession of the field. Moreover, with the new despatch arrangements the thing will become SELF-PAYING. I am of the firm opinion that, even if we have to set the little paper's sights rather lower for a time, we must, AT A CERTAIN MOMENT, give it a meaningful line. Should the Hermann go under we shall change over to Hirschfeld's press. (Cheaper, gives more credit, more expeditious.) FOR THE MOMENT, however, it's absolutely essential that a few more subsidies be sent from Manchester.

Napoleon's peace[6] exceeds all my expectations. Yesterday the French revolutionary gang in London were all of them exultant and Louis Blanc was running around like a madman; the Italians, however, are gnashing their teeth. Even Mazzini, although he foretold the result 6 weeks before the end of the war, succumbed AFTERWARDS all the same to the illusion that Bonaparte would at least throw THE AUSTRIANS out of Italy. I have read a letter (PRIVATE LETTER) from an Irishman who sleeps with the Duchesse de Padua in Paris. According to this man, the secret articles of the treaty stipulate two Turkish provinces for Austria; the amalgamation of the Prussian Rhine Province and Belgium into a 'Catholic state', or rather the use of this 'new empire' as a pretext for snapping up the delicious titbits.

The over-ingenuity of Prussia, with the support of Lassalle,[7] etc., has got Germany (and Prussia) into such hot water that the only hope of salvation lies in a ferocious revolution.

I would draw your attention to the first article in The Free Press[8] which I am sending you.

Salut

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Marx means the first week after his return to London. He came back about 2 July 1859 (see Note 444).—463
  2. ↑ Fidelio Hollinger
  3. ↑ Kölnische Zeitung
  4. ↑ Early in October 1856 the Marx family moved to a London suburb.—438, 464
  5. ↑ Friedrich Lessner
  6. ↑ On 8 July 1859 the emperors of France and Austria held a separate meeting—without the King of Piedmont—in Villafranca, at which they reached an agreement on an armistice. The meeting was initiated by Napoleon III, who feared that the protracted war might give a fresh impulse to the revolutionary and national liberation movements in Italy and other European states. On 11 July France and Austria signed a preliminary peace under which Austria was to cede to France its rights to Lombardy and France was to transfer this territory to Piedmont. Venice was to remain under the supreme power of Austria, and the rulers of the states of Central Italy were to be restored to their thrones. It was intended to create a confederation of Italian states under the honorary chairmanship of the Pope. The Villafranca preliminaries formed the basis of the peace treaty concluded by France, Austria and^ Piedmont in Zurich on 10 November 1859.—464, 465
  7. ↑ A reference to Lassalle's pamphlet Der italienische Krieg und die Aufgabe Preußens.
  8. ↑ 'Memoir on Russia, for the Instruction of the Present Emperor', The Free Press, No. 7, 13 July 1859.