Letter to Karl Marx, February 5, 1865

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 5 February 1865


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
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO MARX[1]

IN LONDON

[Manchester,] 5 February 1865
Mornington St[reet]

Dear Moor,

I fully agree about the statement.[2] But you will have to do it yourself, or I shall never get the military article[3] done. I fear the thing is getting to be so long that it will only be feasible in pamphlet form. I and II are finished (except for revision), III not yet. I have had a lot of interruptions, Blank was here, etc., etc. So, you do the statement. The exceptional law also includes the restriction on the right of association and assembly, all the legislation concerning journeymen's road books[4] and finally Article 100 of the penal code: Incitement of citizens to hatred and contempt (another Napoleonic legacy). Then, if you can work it in, some indication that in a predominantly agricultural country like Prussia it is despicable to attack only the bourgeoisie in the name of the industrial proletariat, without even mentioning the brutal patriarchal exploitation of the rural proletariat by the big feudal aristocracy. It is less important to say anything about the military question, but the budget question should be given prominence: what use is it to the workers to have a parliament elected by universal suffrage, if it is as powerless as Bismarck wants to make the present bourgeois parliament—whose successor it would after all be? And if it cannot even reject new taxation?

Those are my thoughts ad hoc[5] ? So, get going and sent the thing to me straightaway.

Meissner. So FAR SO GOOD. You should go there yourself, of course. Conto a meta[6] has its advantages if you reserve the contractual right to inspect the books and documents and if Meissner is prepared to make you an interest-free advance equal to 2/3 of the fee you are claiming anyway. Strohn's letter seems to suggest that Meissner WOULD RATHER NOT FART WITH ANY MONEY IF HE COULD HELP IT.[7] At all events, you must go there yourself with the manuscript[8] and settle it.

Moreover, get on with it quickly now. T h e time is really ripe for the book, and our names again command respect in the public eye. You know how fashionable it is to procrastinate in publishing in Germany. So, do not miss the moment—it may make an enormous difference to the impact it produces.

Siebold. I have told you before that lads like that are not to be trusted and I was sure from the beginning that he would call on Blind in London. T h e assumption that he had picked u p some odd remarks ad portant Gumperti[9] is quite unnecessary. T h e fellow has always done that and will always do so. But it is a good thing we have our eye on him 'all ready'.

I gather from Siebel's letter, which I am keeping here, that the Lassalle Association will very soon be ruined, thanks to its officers' roguish tricks and embezzlement, and a very good thing too that it 'will have turned out thus'. T h e beastly old girl[10] and her cliques will do the rest. T h e less we concern ourselves about the whole filthy business, the better. LET IT ROT AND BE DAMD TO IT.

I find the Social-Demokrätchen[11] more repugnant with every passing day. That shitty Hess, who is, in relation to us, really acting like a secret employee of Lassalle, with his protectorial airs; Mr Schweitzer's bloody pretentious articles on the encyclical and Bismarck, flirting with every kind of trash and only scolding the bourgeoisie,[12] the complete lack of sparkle and talent, and the absence even of any common sense, with just a few exceptions, it is all a bit too much for me. Lassalle-worship three times a week, the devil can stomach that, and it is good that the crisis is coming. I shall tell these gentlemen so in my next letter as well, have had no opportunity to do so until now. Apropos, how are you addressing your letters to Liebknecht? I would like to give him a telling-off from time to time as well, or encourage him, s'il y a lieu[13] :

I must stop now. Best wishes and do send the statement straightaway. I shall have finished the article by Wednesday or Thursday.

Your

F. E.

I have tried to sound out my brother-in-law[14] about Siebel, but I could discover nothing except that he is 'always drunk', runs around with actresses, and his wife wants to divorce him.

M Y BEST COMPLIMENTS TO THE LADIES.

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].
  2. ↑ See previous letter.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party.
  4. ↑ In January 1863 an uprising against Tsarist oppression flared up in the Kingdom of Poland, the territory annexed to Russia by decision of the Vienna Congress of 1815. The uprising of 1863-64 was caused by the Poles' striving for national independence and the crisis of feudal relations within the Kingdom. The National Central Committee, which headed the uprising, put forward a programme of struggle for Poland's independence and a number of democratic agrarian demands. However, the inconsistency and indecision of the insurgent government, in particular its failure to abolish the privileges of the big landowners, drove the majority of the peasants away from the uprising. This was one of the main causes of its defeat.
    In addition, serious damage to the uprising was done by the policy of its Right-wing leaders. They pinned great hopes on help from the ruling circles of Bonapartist France and bourgeois-aristocratic England who were pursuing their own selfish interests in the Polish question.
    The national liberation uprising was, by and large, crushed by the Tsarist government in the autumn of 1863, though some units of the insurgents continued the struggle until the end of 1864.
  5. ↑ on the subject
  6. ↑ a joint account
  7. ↑ This refers TO MARX's plans for the publication of his main work, Capital. At that time, Wilhelm Strohn, at Marx's request, conducted talks with the Hamburg publishing house of Meissner and Behre. At the end of January 1865, a preliminary agreement was reached on publishing the book in two volumes. The text of the agreement (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 361) was sent TO MARX by Meissner in his letter of 21 March 1865.
  8. ↑ of Capital
  9. ↑ at Gumpert's door (see this volume, p. 72)
  10. ↑ Sophie von Hatzfeldt
  11. ↑ Literally: Little Social-Demokrat
  12. ↑ Engels is referring to the following articles by Schweitzer published as leaders in Der Social-Demokrat (Nos. 5, 6 and 14; 6, 8 and 27 January 1865): 'Das Kirchenthum und die moderne Civilisation', 'Das Ministerium Bismarck und die »Regierungen der Mittel- und Kleinstaaten' and 'Das Ministerium Bismarck. I'.
  13. ↑ if there are grounds for doing so
  14. ↑ Karl Emil Blank