Letter to Friedrich Engels, February 1, 1868

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 1 February 1868


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, 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,] 1 February 1868

Dear FRED,

I hope that you are not also indisposed, since you have not written to me this week, and not returned the letters of Kugelmann and Kertbény (I need them to reply).[1] Last Tuesday I went out to the Museum[2] and for a stroll. On Wednesday a new eruption broke out. It is smaller, and does not prevent me sitting, since it is on the upper side of my left thigh. Walking is harmful, however, because of the friction and the spreading of the inflammation. I believe this monster will die out during this week. After the numerous disappointments, I scarcely dare to hope that no more follow. The devil take this mucky business.

Enclosed a letter from Schily. According to him, things look rotten in Paris, as does everything connected with Moses.[3] Reclus does not seem to me to be the right man either.[4] There can naturally be no question of the Pole[5] in Geneva. As soon as your article for the Fortnightly[6] is AT HAND, Lafargue will do it into French for the Courrier français.

From the enclosed Viennese cuttings, which Fox sent me from Vienna, you can see how Lassalle and Delitzsch[7] are rampant there. At the same time as the rascal Bernhard Becker turned up there as a great man. He is now a 'Great-German'[8] in the Bismarck style.

If you still have a copy of your article in the Frankfurter Borsenzeitung,[9] send it to me.[10]

Salut.

Your

K. M.

The Freiligrath begging campaign[11] is going ahead; it has already raised over 32,000 talers.

  1. ↑ A reference to the letter from Kugelmann to Marx of 17-18 January 1868 with which a letter was enclosed to Marx from a Hungarian writer, Kâroly Marie Kertbény. In his letter Kugelmann said that Kertbény had seen him in Hanover and showed an interest in the members of the revolutionary movement. Kugelmann asked Marx to tell him what he thought of Kertbény and also to receive a young banker from Hanover, Karl Coppel, who was going to London. Judging by the letter from Kertbény to Marx of 17 January 1868, he wanted to publish in the Leipzig Illustrierte Zeitung a short biographical note about Marx and a portrait of him on the occasion of the release of Volume One of Capital. Kertbény discovered this portrait by chance in the studio of a photographer in Hanover and asked Marx to send biographical details. Kertbény's project was not fulfilled.
  2. ↑ the British Museum Library
  3. ↑ Moses Hess
  4. ↑ In his letter to Marx of 27 November 1867, Victor Schily informed him about Moses Hess' favourable opinion of Capital and the latter's intention to write an article about it for Le Courrier français. Schily also wrote about Hess' offer to translate, together with Elysée Reclus, Volume One of Capital into French and to publish it. Marx who attached great importance to the publication of Capital in French and saw this in particular as an important weapon against the influence of Proudhon's delusions (see this volume, p. 368) did not object to Reclus' participation in the French edition. However, the discussion which lasted for almost three years came to nothing. Later on, when it became clear that Reclus was one of the leaders of Bakunin's Alliance of Socialist Democracy, he could no longer be considered as a suitable translator of Capital. The translation of Capital into French which had been done by Joseph Roy and edited by Marx himself was published in Paris in 1872-75 by instalments.
  5. ↑ Joseph Card
  6. ↑ The Italian patriot Felice Orsini was executed in March 1858 for organising an attempt on Napoleon Ill's life. After Orsini's arrest, the leadership of the Carbonari a secret revolutionary society, which Louis Bonaparte joined in 1831 when in Italy, sent him letters reminding him of his oath, which he had broken, to struggle for Italy's liberation. After Orsini's execution, it passed an official death sentence on Napoleon III.
  7. ↑ Hermann Schulze Delitzsch
  8. ↑ i. e., champion of Austria's annexation to united Germany
  9. ↑ Frankfurter Zeitung und Handelsblatt
  10. ↑ Engels' review of Volume One of Capital which was written for the Frankfurter Zeitung und Handelsblatt has not been found.
    The review for the Düsseldorfer Zeitung, was published unsigned, with Carl Siebel's assistance, in No. 316 of 16 November 1867 (see present edition, Vol. 20).
  11. ↑ A reference to the subscription for Ferdinand Freiligrath that was started in the spring of 1867. The poet's admirers wanted to present him with a 'people's donation' since he had lost his post of manager in the English branch of the Bank of Switzerland after the latter's bankruptcy. With this aim in view, committees were organised in Britain, Germany and the United States through which funds were gathered. Reports about the subscription were regularly published in the London newspaper Hermann.