Letter to Moncure Daniel Conway, August 29, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 29 August 1871


First published in English in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953
First published in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
Reproduced from the original in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY[1]

IN LONDON

[Draft] [London, 29 August 1871]

Sir,

On my return from Brighton[2] I found your note d.d. August 24. The next meeting of the General Council takes place to-day, but consequent upon a resolution passed on Tuesday last,[3] there will during the continuance of the courts-martial in France[4] no visitors be any longer admissible. This strict measure had been rendered necessary by the intrusion of French police agents.

I have the honour to inclose a subscription list for the French refugees. Their numbers (they are now 80-90) [are] increasing daily (there are now about 80 [in] number)[5] while our funds are quite exhausted. Their case is truly deplorable. The best thing would be, if possible, to form a separate committee charged to find employment for those men whose great majority consists of skilled workmen and artists.

I have the honour, Sir, to be

Yours sincerely,

Karl Marx

  1. ↑ Marx drafted this letter on the back of a letter from M. D. Conway, an American radical writer staying in Britain at the time. Conway enquired about the possibility of attending the General Council's forthcoming meetings.
    This letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953.
  2. ↑ Between 16 and 29 August 1871 Marx stayed at Brighton where, on his doctor's advice, he received treatment for overstrain.
  3. ↑ 22 August
  4. ↑ This refers to the trial of 15 members of the Paris Commune and 2 members of the Central Committee of the National Guard which began on 7 August 1871 in the Third Court Martial. Following the suppression of the Paris Commune there were altogether 26 courts martial in France. Judicial proceedings continued until 1877. The number of people shot, sentenced to exile with hard labour or confined to prison amounted to 70,000.
  5. ↑ Thus in the original.