Letter to Karl Marx, March 11, 1865

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 March 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 for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 11 March[1] 1865

Dear Moor,

Schweitzer's brazenness really is ludicrous. But it does show how hard he has been hit by our withdrawal[2] and how well he knows that very much depends on it for his petty paper. After Herwegh and Rüstow have come out in support of our statement[3] , anything can happen. Schweitzer will soon become aware of the effect his big talk has had, especially on the Rhine. Siebel has done a capital job in circulating the pamphlet.[4] The Bonner Zeitung has twice published long extracts already and is intending to produce still more. The Rheinische Zeitung[5] has also got a long extract as well. Our standing with the Rhineland workers being what it is, this agitation-by-clique against us won't get very far.

Siebel had already sent me the little piece from the Neue Frankfurter Zeitung.[6] Student Blind as always. He is having to make a couple of phrases of Lassalle's last a whole year. I haven't received the lackey[7] yet.

The legacy business is complete, the LAWYER will send the statement of account next week, he has still got approx. 10s. to collect in or pay out, he wasn't sure which. So, I can send you the money on Monday then.[8] Meanwhile, my statement of account enclosed, according to which another £9 approx. are due to you.

The ideas Liebknecht has about Manchester! He has got nothing to gobble and asks me what a house with garden costs here! The fellow is simply soft in the head. Schweitzer, he said, could not sell himself to Bismarck because he would have been obliged to use the good offices of the beastly old woman.[9]

I'm finding the new movement a terrible fag, by the way. It's the devil's own job letter-writing in the evening as well for the party and publisher, etc., until 1 or 2 o'clock, after letter-writing all day at work.

Siebel has sent me Lange's pamphlet.[10] Confused, Malthusian with some Darwinian ingredients, flirting with all and sundry, but several good passages against Lassalle and the bourgeois consumers' co-op fellows. I'll send it to you in the next few days.

Schily's letter also returned enclosed which I found most entertaining. Our old comrade is turning himself into a very useful diplomat.[11] How did the two of you settle the dispute?

It's impossible to get anywhere with Jones. Hardly are the SESSIONS over when the Assizes begin. THE TRADE IN CRIME SEEMS HIGHLY FLOURISHING.

Adios, and my kindest regards to the LADIES.

Your

F. E.


EXECUTION of Will W. Wolff

Debit

Payment from Steinthal & Co. incl. interest £1,083-9-3 " " " Heywood BROTHERS incl. interest " 234-14-9 Debts collected by Dr Borchardt " 66-13-0

£1,384-17-0

Credit

To payment TO MARX £234-14-9 " " " do " 350-0-0 " " " do " 200-0-0 " " " do " 40-0-0

£824-14-9

" to Borchardt £ 100-0-0 " Schiller Institute[12] " 100-0-0 " Engels " 100-0-0 " Wood, Solicitor " 150-0-0 fPayment to LANDLORD " 13-4-9 Paid funeral expenses " 57-11-0 by Borchardt M of 2 bills " 1-2-4 by Borchardt % of PROBATE DUTY " 30-0-0

1,376-12-10

Balance 8-4-2


There is also a certain amount in interest I have got to make over to you for the period from 9 November (when I received the balance of approx. £633 from Steinthal but only sent you £200 in the first place and also held back other payments). I can't attend to it today as the cashier has already left and locked away the relevant book; you will receive it along with Wood's statement of account; but it won't be much. Most of the interest due arose from the fact that the £633 remained with Steinthal from May until November, which produced approx. £16 extra for you.

  1. ↑ The original has: February.
  2. ↑ From the Social-Demokrat.
  3. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'To the Editor of the Social-Demokrat.'
  4. ↑ F. Engels, The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party.
  5. ↑ Die Rheinische Zeitung.
  6. ↑ In its issue No. 31 of 8 March 1865, Der Social-Demokrat published the statement by Georg Herwegh and Friedrich Wilhelm Rüstow of their refusal, following Marx and Engels, to contribute to this newspaper. Commenting on the statement, Schweitzer distorted Marx's and Engels' attitude to Lassalle and falsified the reasons for their withdrawal from the editorial board of Der Social-Demokrat. To prove that Marx and Engels were allegedly inconsistent and their actions unjustified, Schweitzer quoted Karl Blind's article published in the Neue Frankfurter Zeitung, No. 64, 5 March 1865.
  7. ↑ Der Deutsche Eidgenosse.
  8. ↑ No figure in the original.
  9. ↑ Sophie von Hatzfeldt.
  10. ↑ F. A. Lange, Die Arbeiterfrage in ihrer Bedeutung für Gegenwart und Zukunft.
  11. ↑ It is clear from Schily's letter to Marx of 25 February 1865, and the 'Private Instruction to Schily' extant in Marx's notebook (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 83), that Marx's instructions were aimed at finding such a way of settling the conflict in the Paris organisation of the International Association that would strengthen the position of the Paris Section's Administration and help draw into the International those workers who were still under the influence of bourgeois republicans (participants in the co-operative movement, and so on).
  12. ↑ The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 in connection with the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's birth, strove to be a German emigre cultural and social centre. Engels was critical of the Institute, noted for its tendency to formalism and pedantry, and he initially kept aloof from it. But when certain changes were introduced into its Rules, he became a member of its Directorate in 1864. Later, as the President of the Institute, Engels devoted much time to it and exercised a considerable influence on its activities.
    In September 1868, while Engels was away from Manchester, the Institute invited Karl Vogt, who was connected with the Bonapartists and was slandering the proletarian revolutionaries, to deliver a lecture. Engels felt that his political reputation would be compromised if he remained President and so he left the Directorate. In April 1870 he was again elected a member of the Directorate of the Schiller Institute, but did not take an active part in it.