Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 14, 1852

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 14 December 1852


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 14 December 1852 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

Like you, I have been suffering all this while from piles. But this time they did not, in my case, reach the 'perfidious' stage, since they luckily occurred during the time of lean kine. If necessary you should use leeches. C'est le grand moyen[1]

The money arrived a week ago yesterday. From the following copy of a letter from Schabelitz jnr. you will see how things stand with the Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne.

'Basle, 11 December 1852

'Dear Marx,

'I received the manuscript intact day before yesterday, and today am already going through the first sheet of proofs. The pamphlet is SPLENDIDLY set in a completely new type and will appear in 16mo. We shall get the proofs as best we can. The whole will amount to 70-80 printed pages and we could, I think, fix the price at 10 silver groschen per copy, since part at any rate of the edition (2,000 copies) is likely to be confiscated. The main consignment will go to the Rhine Province. I feel sure the pamphlet will create a tremendous sensation, for it is a masterpiece. There were four of us reading through the manuscript, two highly competent and discriminating men'

(do you suppose Schabelitz numbers himself among the 'competent'?)

'and we were all unanimous in our praise of it. It certainly constitutes a "memorial" to the Prussian government. 'With kind regards to the Marx party.

Yours

J. Schabelitz'

This last is an allusion to certain misgivings of mine lest Schabelitz should take offence at the rough treatment meted out to the Willich-Schapper party, to which he himself plus ou moins[2] belonged.

Secrecy being all-important if the thing is not to be confiscated as soon as it reaches the German border, I have been putting it about here that a pamphlet on the Cologne affair is to appear in America.

In order not to overburden you in your present haemorrhoidal condition I got Pieper to translate tant bien que mal[3] a critique of Disraeli's budget[4] written for Dana and it went off to America last Friday.[5]

Excuse me for not writing more this time. I have the most infernal headache.

Your

K. Marx

  1. ↑ That's the drastic means.
  2. ↑ more or less
  3. ↑ as well as he was able
  4. ↑ K. Marx, 'Parliament.—Vote of November 26.— Disraeli's Budget'.
  5. ↑ 10 December 1852