Letter to Karl Marx, August 25, 1879

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 25 August 1879


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
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO MARX

IN RAMSGATE[1]

Eastbourne, 25 August 1879
53 Grand Parade

Dear Moor,

I hope you got my letter[2] sent to the Hôtel de l'Europe, St Hélier, together with an enclosure from Liebknecht to me and a letter (returned) from Hirsch to you.

In the meantime Hirsch has been arrested in Paris and after two days in detention he was compelled to leave the country. He is in London, staying with Lessner. 04 Yesterday I got from him a whole parcel of correspondence to do with the newspaper affair[3] ; very interesting. In my view he has acted quite correctly. (He knew my

address, as I had sent him a few excerpts, omitting anything offensive, from the letter of Liebknecht's I passed on to you.)D°5

I've just received 1. a letter from Höchberg in Scheveningen and 2. one from Bebel,[4] the purpose of both being to induce us to contribute. There's no hurry about a reply as Vollmar, the editor taken on in place of Hirsch, won't be out of jug for another three weeks! A really excellent prelude, this.

I'd send you the whole bag of tricks if I was sure of your address. According to your wife it is 62 Plains of Waterloo, while Laura maintains it's 71. As soon as I know for certain where you are, I'll send you the lot. What an unholy muddle these people have again got themselves into. Liebknecht, Bebel, Viereck, Höchberg, Schramm, Bernstein, they all of them write something different and there's nothing but confusion and contradiction. So all we can do is wait, and at least there'll be no need for us to be disturbed by this business during our holiday.

I wrote at once to Hirsch lD and told him I'd be back in London next Thursday.[5]

You will in the meantime have heard from the Lafargues that they have been here. Unfortunately the weather wasn't up to much.

How's Jenny getting on? As well as could be expected, according to the last news I got from your wife. I hope this is still the case. Give her my love and congratulate her on her strapping boy.[6] Your refound ability to sleep will, I trust, continue, thereby removing the chief obstacle that prevents you feeling really fit. Let's hope the Ramsgate weather will suit your wife too. Jollymeier is much better, but the changeable weather is a sharp reminder to him that something is still slightly amiss between muscles and joints. Pumps is ALL RIGHT; as usual sea-bathing is doing me a power of good; I think I'm getting properly fat.

If you don't write tomorrow, then better [write] to London. The postal facilities here are antediluvian; a letter posted on Wednes- day would not arrive until after our departure.

Best wishes to all of you, and see to it that Jenny doesn't take it upon herself to return home too soon. How long are you staying there?

Your

F. E.

Do you have Kovalevsky's London address, or can I get it from Tussy?

  1. ↑ On 21 August 1879, Marx interrupted his stay in Jersey (see Note 494) and n arrived in Ramsgate to join his daughter Jenny and her newborn son Edgar. He returned to London on 17 September.
  2. ↑ See previous letter.
  3. ↑ This refers to the preparations for the publication of the illegal newspaper Der Sozialdemokrat in Zurich, the new central printed organ ot the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. The need for such a newspaper emerged after a ban on the entire party press, above all the Vorwärts, following the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law in October 1878 (see Note 462). In July-September 1879, extensive correspondence on the political line of the new paper and its editors was maintained between August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Louis Viereck (in Leipzig), Carl Hirsch (in Paris), Eduard Bernstein, Karl Höchberg, Carl August Schramm (in Zurich), and Marx and Engels (in London).
    The campaign Marx and Engels conducted for a sound political line of the party's future central printed organ is fully expounded in their Circular Letter to August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Wilhelm Bracke and Others of 17-18 September 1879 (see this volume, pp. 394-408).
  4. ↑ Engels answered Karl Höchberg's letter of 24 August 1879 on 26 August (see this volume, pp. 379-80).
    A reply to Bebel's letter to Engels of 20 August 1879 was the Circular Letter to August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Wilhelm Bracke and Others (see this volume, pp. 394-408).
  5. ↑ 28 August
  6. ↑ new born son, Edgar Longuet