Letter to Friedrich Engels, February 16, 1865

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 16 February 1865


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London, 16 February 1865]

DEAR FREDERICK, Jones has written, asking me to send him ABOUT 1 DOZEN CARDS; I am sending you 1 DOZEN for him and 1 for yourself. What you can't

[1] [2]

dispose of WITHIN A REASONABLE period of time you can send back. Price Is. Id. PER CARD.

I remind you AGAIN that Pettier may, in my opinion, be very useful in this matter. For years now he has had many PERSONAL RELATIONS (as SINGMASTER and socialist) with the Manchester workers.

You must return enclosed letter (to Lessner) when you have read it. How do you think we should MANAGE this business? J shall keep my mouth shut, of course, but Lessner won't be able to do that.[3]

I am pleased to see in today's Times that the Prussian Chamber has accepted the motion against the Combination Laws. The government will now arrange for it to be rejected in the LORDS HOUSE. Red Becker[4] —no doubt spurred on by your literary contribution[5] —has brought in the amendment about the rural population.[6]

Salut

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ The rest of the letter, missing in the English original, has been translated from the extant French manuscript.
  2. ↑ Manuscript damaged
  3. ↑ Marx forwarded to Engels a letter from a Cologne worker, G. Matzeratt, to Friedrich Lessner dated 8 January 1865. Matzeratt wrote about the disagreements between Bernhard Becker and Carl Klings in the General Association of German Workers. On behalf of a group of the Association's members, he asked Lessner to inquire about Marx's opinion and help them to clarify the matter. As can be seen from Engels' letter to Marx of 7 February 1865, Becker gained the upper hand over Klings (see this volume, p. 82).
  4. ↑ Hermann Heinrich Becker
  5. ↑ F. Engels, 'Herr Tidmann. Old Danish Folk Song'.
  6. ↑ During the debate on the right of combination in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies (see Note 107), Hermann Heinrich Becker, a deputy from Dortmund, moved a proposal, on 11 February 1865, that the right of combination be extended to the agricultural labourers as well. He also proposed to abolish the law of 24 April 1854 on the punishment of servants and day labourers for the violation of their duties.