Letter to Hermann Engels, October 5, 1877

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 5 October 1877


First published abridged in Deutsche Revue, Jg. 46, Bd. 3, Stuttgart-Leipzig, 1921 and in full 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 HERMANN ENGELS

IN ENGELSKIRCHEN

London, 5 October 1877

Dear Hermann,

At the end of this month (31 October) I shall have to make payments of approx. £380 and should therefore be pleased if you would send me the corresponding amount pretty soon. Might I add that I should be grateful if it could be so arranged that the remittance is made payable here before the 31st (incl. the three days of grace, hence nominally payable on the 27th inst. at the latest), since I should otherwise be unable, local banking practice being what it is, to avail myself of it on the 31st and, for anyone not in business, discounting is always troublesome and sometimes, even, well nigh impossible unless one gets various other people moving; and I should imagine that the Barmen Bankers' Association can make payment three days after date or sight as readily as ten.

I've loafed about a great deal this summer, seven weeks at the seaside[1] and then a fortnight in Scotland, but it has actually done me a tremendous amount of good.

No doubt you will now admit that I was right in my assessment of the Turks' power of resistance and the weakness of the Russians in attack.[2] Next year the Turks will be twice as strong because they will be able to train their men during the winter. Should the Russians not move their army across the Danube for the winter, and this I can scarcely believe, they may be in for a surprise. Ice floes on the Danube, for instance, have scant respect for pontoon bridges, even if they do belong to the Emperor of Russia. Still, come what may, Russia will have her Constitution before the end of 1878 and, with it, the second edition of the French Revolution of 1789-94.

The man who has largely prevented the Turks from playing an altogether different kind of game with the Russians is the Sultan's[3] brother-in-law, Mahmud Damad Pasha, friend of Ignatiyev and for years in the latter's pay. Should you ever hear that he has been overthrown, you may rest assured that the vigour with which the war is conducted will be of a completely different order. He is also the man who brought about Mehemet Ali's recall.

Love to Emma,[4] the children, and all brothers and sisters,

Your

Friedrich

  1. ↑ Engels was in Ramsgate at the time (see Note 289), and between 5 and 21 September 1877, he and his wife were on holiday in Scotland.
  2. ↑ See this volume, pp. 187-88.
  3. ↑ Abdul Hamid II's
  4. ↑ Emma Engels