Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 26, 1876

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 26 July 1876


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO ENGELS

IN RAMSGATE

[London,] 26 July[1] 1876

DEAR FRED,

SEASIDE or no SEASIDE, you must recall that you did not leave till last Monday[2] ; moreover, according to the RELICTS living at No. 122,[3] you will both of you be returning in the middle or at the end of this week (or so I was informed only yesterday).[4] As for last week, Laura (and I accompanied her, as my wife had written to say she was very unwell) spent the second part of it in Brighton (Lafargue came down on Saturday and returned with myself and Laura on Sunday); Longuet and Jennychen, however, were still SCHOOLBOUND.[5] The Lafargues will be coming down to Ramsgate this Friday or Saturday, and will return on Sunday, since Lafargue cannot interrupt his BUSINESS[6] and Laura has to resume her teaching on Monday. The only week she will have off is the last week in August. (She has got to make up this week for the one day she missed last week, which, in this heat, is far from agreeable.)

I shall pass on the contents of your letter[7] to the other members of the family.

My wife was still very unwell when we arrived, and slightly better when we left her. As soon as she feels fit enough she will certainly wish to spend a few days in Ramsgate. During the next day or two Lenchen will be completely taken up with the preparations for Tussy's trip.[8]

We were told in Brighton that Madame Bravo used to be a ballet dancer and Madame Cox her DRESSMAKER. During my wife's stay in Brighton, Mrs Bravo gave GREAT PUBLIC (plus ou moins[9] ) DINNER PARTIES there.

In the last Bnepedz! there's a disgustingly sycophantic article about Bakunin's funeral,[10] at which Guillaume, Brousse, the two Reclus and l'illustre[11] Cafiero were the chief ACTORS. Bakunin is depicted therein as the 'giant' of the Revolution. We are promised a sequel by the same correspondent on the subject of the plans put forward after the funeral for a coalition between the two Internationals, namely the Jurassians who want a FREE FEDERATION of workers, and the Germans who aspire to a People's State [Volksstaat]. To achieve this, it was said, all that was needed was to reframe Article 3 of the Rules in accordance with the version adopted at the 'Congress of 1873' (Guillaume's congress).[12] In a short paragraph in the Volksstaat (I don't know whether you've read it yet) Liebknecht declares that nobody could desire this more than we (i.e. he); but, incorrigible TALKER that he is, goes on to say: 'Let us see deeds instead of words'.[13] Naturally, he is gratified that Mr Guillaume should proclaim the 'People's State' the be-all and end-all of the non-Bakuninist International. Lavrov clearly considers it a good BUSINESS MANOEUVRE to accept Bakuninist articles, thus also committing that PARTY to his paper.

The Brighton AQUARIUM has really come into its own since the time (three years ago) when I witnessed its beginnings.[14] In accordance with the compromise it has reached with PARSON POWER, it now stays open on Sunday afternoons (until the evening), but on the arid condition that the poor devils of EXCURSIONISTS shall not obtain a drop of liquid, not even undistilled water. You ought to go and have a look at it one of these days.

Love to the whole FAMILY and kind regards to Madame Pauli.a

Your

Moor

  1. ↑ June in the original
  2. ↑ 24 July
  3. ↑ i.e. in Engels' house in Regent's Park Road
  4. ↑ Engels was on holiday in Ramsgate between 24 July and 1 September 1876. In early August, he and his wife took Mary Ellen Burns back to her boarding house as her holidays were over. On 5 August, he returned to Ramsgate.
  5. ↑ From 1874, Charles Longuet taught French at the King's College in London, and Jenny Longuet—German at Clement Dun's school. In 1880, after the Paris Commune members had been amnestied, Longuet returned to Paris.
  6. ↑ After his withdrawal from the engravers' firm in the summer of 1873, Lafargue bought a photolithographic and etching workshop in the hope of solving his financial problems.
  7. ↑ Engels' letter has not been found.
  8. ↑ Between 15 August and 15 September 1876, Marx, accompanied by his daughter Eleanor (Tussy), was in Karlsbad taking a cure for the third time. Having completed it, he spent a few days with Max Oppenheim in Prague, and then, after brief visits to Kreuznach and Liège, returned to London on 22 September 1876.
  9. ↑ more or less
  10. ↑ 'BepHi,, 4 IIOAH. lïoxopoHM M. A. EaKVHHHa', Bnepedb!, No. 37, 15 July 1876.
  11. ↑ the illustrious
  12. ↑ Marx gives an account of the resolution passed at the meeting held after Bakunin's funeral on 3 July 1876. The anarchist congress (the so-called sixth general congress of the International Working Men's Association) held in Geneva from 1 to 6 September 1873 approved new Rules for the Bakuninist International. Article 3 declared complete autonomy of the federations and sections of the Association.
  13. ↑ 'Das Begräbniß Bakunin's...', Der Volksstaat, No. 82, 16 July 1876.
  14. ↑ Marx and his daughter Eleanor spent a few days in Brighton in March 1873.