Letter to Karl Marx, May 12, 1865

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 May 1865


First published abridged in Der Briefwechseln 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 for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42, p. 156

To Marx in London


Manchester, 12 May 1865

Dear Moor,

Schily's letter returned enclosed. That passing glimpse of the family life of Moses and the Moses woman[1] was most entertaining. Many thanks for the Nordsterns. The reports in them provide a check on the negative evidence of the Social-Demokrat, which I am keeping on until June (and if it is not being taken anywhere in London accessible to you, I am willing to continue taking it, one never knows what may happen).

By the by, the rag in question—i.e., the Social-Demokrat—has now gone into such decline that one really feels sorry for it. Poor Schweitzer's heroic soul is at its last gasp, every shred of an idea and all the fruits of his reading have already been used u p and he hasn't even a fart left in him to serve up to his readers. Nor is Mauses[2] producing anything any more, Mauses, the last hope of the new 'party'.[3] 'News of the Association' is a complete blank, too—literary section re-printed from the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung.[4] After four months editorship during one of the most turbulent periods we have known since 1848, that milksop has been pumped dry, right down to the dregs, and those are the fellows who wanted to annex the whole German proletariat by one trick.

Ad vocem[5] Potter: five pounds end., you can take some, i.e., five of the SHARES in my name and five in Samuel Moore's, whom I've admittedly not yet seen, but he's sure to take some; we'll send you PROXY for the general meeting.[6] If Gumpert also wants 5 SHARES, you can pass some of those 20 on to him—so: 5 for me, 5 for Moore, the remaining 10 to be distributed to other people, but make sure that, if the people are not quite reliable, you reserve the right to take them back again.

As for the suggestion that I should form a BRANCH of the International Association here, it's quite out of the question. Apart from Moore and Gumpert, I see no one here,as I can't broach that kind of thing with the Kyllmanns or we would have a squabble at once. Besides, my position as its correspondent for London would impose all kinds of obligations on me, which I would be unable to fulfil as soon as real contacts with the workers were found or arose here. Et à quoi bon?[7] I wouldn't be able to take any of the burden off your shoulders anyway.

Apropos. Moses is still up to his tricks against the International Association in the Social-Demokrat[8] ; if you haven't read the piece, I'll send it to you.

The number of the banknote is: B/C 48498, Manchester, 4 January 1864.

The tongues of Engels, etc., are not a reference to me, as I thought myself at first, but to the statistician Privy Councillor Engel in Berlin who sorted out the things for Roon which I criticised.[9]

Jones must be allowed to go his own way. He doesn't seem to me to have any real confidence in the proletarian movement any more. I can never find him here anyway, he's always away.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ Moses and Sibylle Hess. See the letter from Marx to Engels from May 1, 1865
  2. ↑ Moses Hess. Engels makes a pun on the name Moses and the word Maus (mouse).
  3. ↑ After Marx, Engels, Liebknecht, Herwegh, Rüstow and Johann Philipp Becker refused to collaborate with Der Social-Demokrat, Moses Hess continued to work on it, and when the Rheinische Zeitung printed a notice about Hess' refusal to contribute to the newspaper, he denied it.
  4. ↑ In its issue No. 58 (the literary section) of 10 May 1865, Der Social-Demokrat reprinted from the Allgemeine Zeitung (of 29 April 1865, supplement) a commentary on Wuttke's Städtebuch des Landes Posen. In this book Wuttke tried to prove that the Germans had an inherent right to the Polish lands.
  5. ↑ concerning
  6. ↑ Letter to Friedrich Engels, May 9, 1865
  7. ↑ And what would be the use?
  8. ↑ In his report from Paris published in the supplement to issue No. 57 of Der Social-Demokrat of 7 May 1865, Moses Hess again slandered the French members of the International. Der Social-Demokrat, No. 16 for 1 February 1865, published an item 'Paris, 28.Januar. Internationale Arbeiter-Association.—Geldkrisis' (signed H). It repeated the libel that the French members of the International (Henri Tolain and Charles Limousin) were in contact with the Bonapartists.
  9. ↑ Letter to Friedrich Engels, May 9, 1865