Letter to Karl Marx, May 16, 1866

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 16 May 1866


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


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 16 May 1866

Dear Moor,

The Freiligrath affair is very amusing and very gratifying. That's what comes of him attaching himself to the respectable people among the émigrés and renouncing the 'party'. As regards Blind, the fitting cry in respect of his: manus haec inimica tyrranis[1] should be that children ought not to play with guns. It is incidentally quite clear from the affair that Bismarck wears an armoured shirt.[2] The shots must all have hit him, the last 3 are admitted to have been direct hits, and as the revolver was so designed that it could not be fired in contact with the target, there is just no other possibility. They make these things very fine and yet strong nowadays. His friend Bonaparte will no doubt have supplied him with one and recommended it to him.

Monsieur Bismarck has obviously been gravely disappointed in the smaller states, hinc[3] the threat of an imperial constitution and Bennigsen. There must also have been some financial mishaps. But can one conceive of anything more comical than that the same William, who as top general in the year 1849 bore the imperial constitution to its grave, now wants to resuscitate it, or rather has to. Bismarck as restorer of the 'German fundamental rights',[4] it's too funny. Things are not looking quite as they should in the militia and in the reserves, who have been recalled, either; in Görlitz there was a serious fracas amongst them, soldiers of the line had to be called out and then withdraw because the fellows were not willing to tolerate intervention of that kind. If these people are kept hanging around under arms for another 3-4 weeks, there is no knowing what they might do. And since neither Prussia nor Italy is ready to attack, they will presumably have to stick there until the end of May at least.

This much is certain: Monsieur Bismarck has ridden into a morass with which neither he nor any of the present regime can cope. If things are settled peaceably, he will have burnt up the available funds and therefore he will no longer be able to help himself, and if there is war, he will have to Acheronta movere,[5] who will certainly consume him. In these circumstances, even a direct victory of the Chamber-burghers will be revolutionary in character and is bound to lead to other things.

For all that, I still cannot think that in the middle of the 19th century North and South Germany will come to blows with each other, just because Bismarck would have it so in the interests of the Russians and Bonaparte. However, if the storm does break, it may go ill with the Prussians. This time, the Austrians seem to be intent on going to the limit of their strength, and, even if their big talk of 900,000 men is nonsense, it is still possible that they may take the field in Saxony with substantial numerical superiority. Against Austria, Prussia cannot draw on the Rhenish and Westphalian corps at all, and only on part of the Saxon. There remain the other six army corps, which will scarcely be able to muster 240,000 men to face the enemy. If, as is suggested, the Austrians initially remain on the defensive in Italy, they will only need 150,000 men there, and can perfectly well send 300-350,000 men against Prussia—unless the Russians compel them to keep a strong force in Galicia. The deciding battle could then be fought by 180,000 Prussians against 240-280,000 Austrians and would almost infallibly be another Jena[6] and lead directly to Berlin. But it is difficult to speculate about this, as the Austrians' troops are always much stronger on paper, and they tell a lot of lies, at present in particular.

Unfortunately, Monsieur Charles[7] is behind with the ledger, which has my account in it, so that at the moment I cannot even properly ascertain how I stand, and as the financial year ends in 6 weeks and I then must have a certain amount of capital in the business, I shall have to make my dispositions accordingly. As soon as I can, I shall add up my worldly assets and send you some money, if it is at all possible. But, at all events, you can count on my letting you have a £50 early in July immediately after the accounts for the financial year have been made up.

The Kreuz-Zeitung[8] makes delightful reading, advocating as it does universal suffrage, Bonapartism, Victor Emmanuel, etc. The dirt those fellows are now being obliged to eat is abundant.

Kindest regards to your wife and the girls.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ this hand is hostile to tyrants (see this volume, p. 273)
  2. ↑ On 7 May 1866, Ferdinand Cohen, a student and Karl Blind's stepson, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Bismarck. He was arrested and committed suicide in prison.
  3. ↑ hence
  4. ↑ On Bismarck's intended reform of the German Confederation, see Note 316.
    The Fundamental Rights of the German People (Die Grundrechte des deutschen Volkes), approved by the Frankfurt National Assembly late in 1848, formulated, like the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, the basic bourgeois freedoms; they were incorporated into the Imperial Constitution of 1849, which was worked out by the National Assembly, but rejected by the King of Prussia and other German sovereigns (see Note 130). The main points of the Fundamental Rights were included in the constitutions of some German states, but were later on either deleted from them, or revised and curtailed on the basis of the decision of the Federal Diet of 23 August 1851.
  5. ↑ call the powers of the underworld to his aid (Virgil, Aeneid, VII, 312).
  6. ↑ At the battle of Jena (14 October 1806) the French army, commanded by Napoleon, routed the Prussian army, thus forcing Prussia to surrender.
  7. ↑ Charles Roesgen
  8. ↑ Neue Preussische Zeitung