Letter to Karl Marx, December 16, 1867

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 16 December 1867


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


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

[Manchester,] 16 December 1867

Dear Moor,

Enclosed a letter from Liebknecht, who is another great muddle-head. Especially over the Austrian business. Because Austria stands on the eve of its 1789, Liebknecht therefore praises it as the state of freedom![1] I have not answered him yet, but will do so as soon as you send the letter back.

Have sent articles to Kugelmann 1. for the Swabian Mayer,[2] 2. for the Gewerbeblatt[3] Ditto to Siebel for Mannheim.[4] Further Swabian articles to follow.

The piece[5] has appeared in the Zukunft. I now buy the paper SECOND HAND from the Schiller Institute[6] so that I can see it regularly.

In haste.

Your

F. E.

The marriage business is perfectly straightforward. THE MARRIAGE IS PERFORMED BEFORE THE REGISTRAR FOR THE DISTRICT, who also puts up the BANNS at his OFFICE 14 days previously. Two or more witnesses are necessary. You can find out all the details at that office. For England nothing else is required, but as regards validity in France, Jones cannot tell you either, so Lafargue senior will have to ask his lawyer in Bordeaux. I shall, incidentally, check the code civil.

Gumpert was married in this way. Your wife can tell her philistine neighbours that this way was chosen because Laura is protestant and Paul catholic.

  1. ↑ Engels' letter to Liebknecht mentioned here has not been found. In his reply to this letter of 11 December 1867, Liebknecht said that he agreed with Engels' remarks on the policy pursued by the working-class representatives in Germany but that he had a different opinion on individual practical questions of agitation. In particular, he explained the reason for the address that he and Bebel had sent to the Vienna City Council by their confidence that Austria was on the eve of a revolution ('She has to experience her own 1789'), which was to have an impact on the whole of Germany.
  2. ↑ F. Engels, 'Review of Volume One of Capital for the Beobachter'.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, 'Review of Volume One of Capital for the Staats-Anzeiger für Württemberg'.
  4. ↑ F. Engels, 'Review of Volume One of Capital for the Neue Badische Landeszeitung.
  5. ↑ K. Marx, 'Plagiarism'.
  6. ↑ 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.