| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 22 January 1852 |
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
[Manchester,] 22 January 1852
Dear Marx,
Herewith the 7th article for the Tribune. The eighth, etc., will be done tomorrow evening, and today I shall get something ready for Weydemeyer. In his case, I am for a start restricting myself to England, being unable to bring myself to read German newspapers and do something on Germany. Could you not perhaps persuade Lupus, who, I hope, is fit as a fiddle again, to send off something 'From the German Empire'[1] ?—Weerth will produce something for Weydemeyer next week; this week he cannot. I hope to see him here the day after tomorrow and he may come up to London in a week or a fortnight's time since, out of sheer impatience, he is once again champing at the bit.
The Pacific having arrived from New York yesterday, there's a chance that tomorrow might bring the numbers[2] promised me by Weydemeyer—but I am not counting on this since he may have waited for the regular English MAIL STEAMER. By the way, he should not send so many, 50 copies is too much and will probably cost a mint of money, and who are they all to be sent to? I will find out what the charges are and if needs be—that is, if he can't arrange the business more cheaply through parcels consignment agencies—10 copies would be quite sufficient; for he cannot after all count on subscribers in Europe. A few in London, perhaps; otherwise maybe only in Hamburg. And that would also call for an agency, which would not pay for itself.
I trust you'll soon be sending me an article to translate for the Tribune.
Jones has written to me asking for contributions. I shall do my best and have given him my word.[3] All this means that any spare time I might have for swotting is frittered away piecemeal, and that's bad. I must see how I can arrange things and diddle the office. Jones mentions a dirty trick Harney played on him[4] and says he was cheated out of £15, concerning which you would be able to tell me more—what is all this? He was, of course, VERY BUSY and his letter consists largely of unfinished sentences and exclamation marks.
As to Pieper's DODGE in the matter of the bill, the whole stratagem was, of course, perfectly plain to me, and Monsieur le bel homme[5] will have realised that he needs rather more cunning to conjure eight pounds out of my pocket. Being well aware how he stood financially on 2 January, I chaffed him about his supposed shortage of money, warned him against dishonest and unsound bill-brokers in London, declared that the bill must be dispatched as quickly as possible, and finally advised him to have it cashed through Weydemeyer—in which case, it would again pass through your hands and, upon the arrival of the notification of payment, which would, of course, come to you or me, it would quite spontaneously give rise to a further discounting transaction with this youthful trading house. I owe him 2 pounds, for which he also asked; this I also promised to repay, but not before the beginning of February.
That the good Louis Napoleon must go to war is clear as day and, if he can come to an understanding with Russia, he will probably pick a quarrel with England. This would have its good and its bad aspects. The French notion that they could conquer London and England in 5 hours is a very harmless one. But what they can do now, is carry out sudden raids with 20, or at the most 30 thousand men, which, however, would nowhere be very effective. Brighton is the one town seriously threatened; Southampton, etc., are safeguarded, not so much by fortifications as by their situation on deep inlets navigable only at high tide and with the help of local pilots. The greatest EFEECT a French landing could hope to achieve would be the destruction of Woolwich, but even then they would have to take damned good care not to advance on London. In the case of any serious invasion, the combined forces of the Continent would inevitably give the English at least A YEARS NOTICE, whereas 6 months would suffice to place England in a state of readiness against any attack. The present alarums are being deliberately exaggerated—with the greatest help from the Whigs. All the English have to do to safeguard themselves for the time being is to recall a dozen ships of the line and STEAMERS, fit out another dozen of both kinds which are lying in port half completed, recruit 25,000 more troops, organise volunteer rifle battalions equipped with Minié rifles and, in addition, some militia and some training for the YEOMANRY. But the alarums serve a very good purpose; the government had really excelled itself in allowing things to go to wrack and ruin and this will cease. And then, if it comes to the point, they will be so well armed that they will be able to repulse any attempt at a landing and at once retaliate.
Otherwise, so far as I can see, there are only 2 prospects open to Louis Napoleon if he wants to start a war: 1. against Austria, i.e. against the entire Holy Alliance, or 2. against Prussia, if the latter is dropped by Russia and Austria. However, the second is very doubtful and, as for his picking a quarrel with the Holy Alliance, this is most questionable. Neither England nor the Holy Alliance will abandon Piedmont, Switzerland and Belgium to him. The business is becoming so prettily entangled that in the end pure chance must decide.
And à l'intérieur, what splendid goings-on! Attempted assassinations almost a daily occurrence and the measures taken ever prettier. If only Mr de Morny, who still to some degree plays a virtuous hero, were at last thrown out, and if only the noble one[6] were to confiscate the property of the Orleans. It would hardly be possible to pave the way for a Blanqui government more surely than does this jackass.
Your
F. E.