Letter to Ernst Dronke, November 13, 1876

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 13 November 1876


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO ERNST DRONKE[1]

IN WATERLOO

[Draft]

[London,] 13 November 1876

Dear Dronke,

Since only five payments à £14=£70 have been made on the policy up till now, and it might well be that in the meantime you would find yourself compelled to make use of the money in another way and be unable to raise it on the 21st inst., and since I am actually advancing more than twice the amount already paid on the policy, you will pardon me if I prefer to make the payment myself in this instance, and I await your advice as to when. On the other hand, in order to oblige you so far as I can, I do not propose to set off against the £150 the £10 lent to you here, which means that I am advancing you £160 in all, and this at 5%, repayable 1 May '77.

You received here £io
£160

CHEQUE 10 November 1876 "10 To Drake & Son "60 Payment on policy "14
94

Herewith CHEQUE for balance £ 66

I've got such frightful bronchial catarrh that I have been condemned to stay indoors in dressing-gown, slippers and a state of TEETOTALisM, hence can't go out to get any bank-notes.

[Note at the end of the letter]

LIFE ASSOCIATION OF SCOTLAND 5 Lombard St., E.C. DUE 21 Nov. AT LATEST.

  1. ↑ Engels wrote this draft letter on the back of Ernst Dronke's letter to him of 12 November 1876. Dronke proposed that he himself should make the payments on the policy he had given Engels as security for the money he had been advanced (see Engels' letter to Dronke of 1 November 1876, this volume, p. 165). Dronke also promised that the annual payments on the policy would be made on 22 November.