| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 25 October 1852 |
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 25 October 1852 28 Dean Street, Soho
Dear Engels,
We must make some other arrangements about our correspondence. We undoubtedly have a fellow-reader in Derby's Ministry. Moreover, there is again someone keeping watch, or at least attempting to do so, outside my house (of an evening). Hence I can write and tell you nothing I deem it inadvisable for the Prussian government to learn at this moment.
Dana is treating me very badly. I wrote to him about 6 weeks ago, telling him exactly how things stood with me and that I must be paid by return for the articles I had sent. He has regularly published the articles but has not yet sent the money. I, of course, must continue punctiliously, notwithstanding. Otherwise it is I who will suffer in the end.
Now, as much as 5 weeks ago, I mollified my LANDLORD with my prospects in America. Today the fellow calls and makes a fearful scene in front of me and the HOUSEKEEPER. Upon my finally resorting to the ultima ratio,[1] i.e. abuse, he retired, threatening that if I didn't produce any money this week, he would throw me out into the street, but first would land me with a BROKER.
4-5 days ago 130 copies of the Brumaire arrived from Cluss. As yet I have been unable to get them from the customs because this would mean paying 10/9d. As soon as I've got the stuff out, I'll send it to the place you know and at once draw a bill on the same. With this and the Dana business I now have over £30 outstanding, yet often have to lose an entire day for a shilling. I assure you that, when I consider my wife's sufferings and my own impotence, I feel like consigning myself to the devil.
Kothes and Bermbach were arrested because I had sent the latter through the former a work necessary to the defence, which (despite thin paper and small pearl type) was somewhat bulky.[2]
The government thought it had made a splendid catch. But on the closer examination jeune[3] Saedt raised heaven and earth to have the thing suppressed, for the document contained curious STRICTURES on the capability, etc., of jeune Saedt and could, if communicated to the juries, only help to acquit the accusés.[4]
In the Neue Preussische Zeitung, 'G. Weerth' is said to be a member of the Central Authority in Cologne, and, indeed, this is cited from the bill of indictment.
Tell Weerth that I have heard nothing from Duncker.[5]
Your
K. M.
As soon as the trial is over, and whatever its outcome, we two must bring out one or two sheets, 'For the Enlightenment of the Public'. No such favourable moment to address the nation en large[6] will ever recur. Furthermore, we must not tolerate any semblance of RIDICULE which not even the moral dignity and scientific profundity of the gentle Heinrich[7] are capable of dispelling.
Cherval has himself written to the German Workers' Society in London[8] saying that he 'is a spy, but in the noble sense of "Cooper's spy"'.[9] I have conveyed the necessary explanation to one of the lawyers[10] by a safe route.
We should already start casting about with a view to the publication on the 'Cologne trial' mooted above. I think it would be best if you were to write to Campe asking him to give you the name of a reliable agent, should he himself be too afraid. Since your credit is good, the agent can be told that he will receive the money in, say, 3 months' time (against a bill), if he has not in the meantime repaid himself from the sales (as he certainly will do). For that matter, the cost of printing this sort of stuff would amount at most to 25 talers.
Vale![11] And think the matter over. We cannot remain silent and if we don't see to the printing in good time, we shall again miss the boat. We should, of course, have to make sure that the agent is not downright dishonest, for the thing will even have 'commercial' value.