Letter to Karl Marx, December 5, 1873

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 5 December 1873


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. IV, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO MARX

IN HARROGATE

[London,] 5 December 1873

Dear Moor,

I would have written to you yesterday as agreed, but I had the pleasure of a visit from your esteemed associé, Mr Le Moussu, from 3 to 6 p.m., who honoured me with a list of his complaints. Have no fear, I do not intend to take my revenge by repeating the entire rigmarole.[1] I have urged them both to keep the peace (Moore[2] a week ago, Le Moussu yesterday) and pointed out that they were now married and would simply have to get along with each other. They are two of the oddest fellows one could hope to find, each with a boundless idea of himself and his achievements, but each in his own speciality, and since their specialities are different, each criticises the other to perfection. I gave Moore £5 last week and another £5 to Le Moussu yesterday, reminding him of his duty to take no more than half for himself. He found this somewhat disagreeable, but since Moore did not come but sent him instead, it was my duty to do so after all that had taken place. Le Moussu then said that £10 were still owing on the patent and that would exhaust the £160. I can give them another £5 next week, if you authorise me to do so, in the event that no money comes in; but I shall categorically demand that Moore should get Longuet to cash it, since there have been enough remittances from October which, when cashed, should keep the machine going. If you could write a brief note to Moore along the same lines, it would be of help. And if they pester you with letters, just write and say that they simply must get along together until your return. That would do very nicely since all the GRIEVANCES are by no means as pressing as they make out.

Have sent the Alliance report[3] to Gumpert. What does he say about your head? I hope you have got rid of your cold.

I am now in a position to pay the £100 due at Christmas. Should I give it all to your wife, or just part and the rest to you on your return? And also, since you are staying 3 weeks, you will need more money for there; IF SO, SAY HOW MUCH, RECKONING LIBERALLY.

I had commissioned Aston over a fortnight ago to sell some SHARES but there are NO BUYERS for this special sort. If I manage to get rid of them (and I shall be seeing him tomorrow), your debts can be settled without delay, otherwise we shall have to wait until the beginning of February, when I have prospects of further money.

For your amusement I am sending you a pamphlet on banks, belonging to Utin. It is by Geffcken, a Strasbourg professor. What clever-clever people they are! And they only quote members of their own lousy gang, authorities like Augspurg (who has ever heard of the Jew?) and the great Wagner of whom it is said:

'Is the Tosafoth Yom Tobh no longer valid? What is valid? Murder! Murder!'[4]

Utin has left a whole pile of such pamphlets here, it's fantastic stuff, SERVES HIM RIGHT if he relies on his bookseller to make the choice. Judging them just by the titles,[5] 3/4 of them are only fit for the W.C., and significantly, not a single one of them has had its pages cut.

More soon on the French translation.[6] Up to now I find that what you have revised is indeed better than the German, but neither French nor German has anything to do with that. Best of all is the note on Mill,[7] quant au style.[8]

Enclosed an excerpt on the way in which mechanical energy is transformed into heat in the human body. Busch is one of the leading contemporary surgeons. The phenomenon described here also explains the claim made by both sides at the start of the war[9] that—in violation of military convention—the enemy was using dumdum bullets. Busch's cool account certainly puts one in mind of the old warning: do not play with firearms. A nice business when your own brain smashes open your skull.[10]

Best regards to Tussy.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ In 1873 Lafargue together with Benjamin Le Moussu and George Moore tried to open up in London an association dealing in the production of engravings. After Lafargue had resigned from the business in late summer 1873, he was replaced by Marx. The association fell apart in the spring of 1874.
  2. ↑ George Moore
  3. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men's Association.
  4. ↑ Heinrich Heine's satirical poem 'Disputation' (Romanzero) describes a medieval dispute between a Catholic Capuchin and a learned rabbi, who refers to the Hebrew scripture Tosafoth Yom Tobh. 'To hell with your book,' retorts the friar. Then follows the reply of the enraged rabbi quoted by Engels.
  5. ↑ F. H. Geffcken, Das Deutsche Reich und die Bankfrage.
  6. ↑ The surviving manuscript copy of the letter does not bear the name of the addressee. However, its contents and Marx's correspondence on the subject indicate that it was addressed to the heads of the Lachâtre publishing house in Paris. On 13 February 1872 Marx received a reply from the manager Juste Vernouillet, who informed him about the despatch of copies of the agreement on the publication of the French translation of Volume I of Capital. The agreement was signed on 15 February by Marx on one side, and Maurice Lachâtre and Juste Vernouillet on the other. It stipulated that the French edition was to be published in 44 instalments, and sold five instalments at a time. The French authorised edition of Volume I of Capital was published between 17 September 1872 and November 1875. The translation was done by Joseph Roy, who began in February 1872 and completed work in late 1873. The quality of the translation largely failed to satisfy Marx; besides, he was convinced that the original needed to be revised to adapt it to French readers.
  7. ↑ Engels is referring to Marx's criticism of John Stuart Mill's vulgar economic views on surplus value expounded in Mill's Principles of Political Economy with Some of their Applications to Social Philosophy, London, 1868. It is to be found in the French edition of Volume I of Capital (1875), in the third German edition of 1883 and in the English edition of 1887 edited by Engels (see present edition, Vol. 35).
  8. ↑ as regards style
  9. ↑ the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71
  10. ↑ Wilhelm Busch began observing bullet wounds in late 1870 and published a number of works on the subject.