Letter to Friedrich Engels, February 21, 1863

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 21 February 1863


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 3, Berlin, 1930
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 21 February 1863

Dear Engels,

At the HEIGHT of my own crisis I wrote to Dronke.42 ABOUT A MONTH AFTER that, I had a letter from him to say that he had been away. Yesterday, he turned up here unexpectedly and left today after a further meeting.

He told me (the initiative was his) that he wanted to help raise a substantial sum, so that I could work in peace for a year. He then mentioned you. I told him (I didn't think it necessary to go into detail on this occasion) that you had done a great deal and would not have a penny to spare for many months TO COME." His rejoinder: 'It's not a question of months but of one to two years.' He is to discuss the matter with you personally.

To what extent all this should be taken seriously or is simply bragging, you will best be able to judge for yourself.

Apropos. My 'liver' is very swollen, add to which I have twinges of pain when I cough and feel some discomfort when pressure is applied. Will you inquire from Gumpert about a household remedy. If I go to Allen, the upshot will be a complete course of treatment and for that, quite apart from numerous other considerations, I have no time just now.

My chief anxiety about the Polish affair[2] is that beastly Bonaparte will find a pretext for moving up to the Rhine and extricate himself from a nasty situation again.

Send me (since you have more material to hand on the subject) a few notes (detailed) on the conduct of Frederick William the Just[3] in the year 1813 after Napoleon's failure in Russia. This time we must go for the dismal House of Hohenzollern.

I left Dronke in doubt as to whether the second volume was already being printed or not.[4]

Salut.

Your

K. M.

[5]

I have just noticed in the 2ND EDITION of The Times that the Prussian Second Chamber has finally done something worth- while.[6] We shall soon have revolution.

  1. ↑ This letter was first published in English in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, 1934.
  2. ↑ In January 1863 an uprising against Tsarist oppression erupted in the Kingdom of Poland (see Note 513). It was an expression of the Poles' striving for national independence and of the crisis of feudal relations within the Kingdom. On 22 January 1863 the National Committee, which headed the uprising, put forward a programme of struggle for Poland's independence and a number of democratic agrarian demands. In May the Committee constituted itself the National Government. However, its inconsistency and indecision, in particular its failure to abolish the privileges of the big landowners, alienated the peasants, the majority of whom stayed away from the uprising. This was one of the main causes of its defeat. The movement was, by and large, crushed by the Tsarist government towards the autumn of 1863, though some units of the insurgents continued the struggle until the end of 1864.
    The leaders of the uprising pinned great hopes on help from the West European powers, but these confined themselves to diplomatic representations and, in effect, betrayed the insurgents.
    The Polish uprising was enthusiastically supported by Russian and West European democrats.
  3. ↑ Frederick William III
  4. ↑ This refers to Marx's work on the second instalment of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, which he started on completing his polemic writing, Herr Vogt (see Note 38). In the period 1861 to 1863 he produced a vast manuscript (200 sheets of print), the second rough draft of Capital
  5. ↑ See this volume, pp. 447-48.
  6. ↑ On 18 February 1863 the liberal majority in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies criticised the Prusso-Russian convention against the Polish insurgents (see Note 507) and passed a resolution urging the Prussian government to remain neutral.