| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 10 March 1853 |
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 10 March 1853
Dear Engels,
Received the £5. This week I was within an inch of kicking the bucket. From hepatitis, or something very similar. This is hereditary in my family. My old man[1] died of it. During the 4 years I have been in England there hasn't been a sign of the thing and I thought it had gone for good. But now the worst is over and, what is more, sans médecin[2] ! But I am still somewhat knocked up.
Yesterday I received the following pleasing letter from Basle:
'Basle, 7 March 1853. 9 o'clock in the morning.
Dear Marx,
I have just heard that the whole consignment of Revelations,[3] amounting to 2,000 copies, which has been lying in a village on the other side of the border for the past 6 weeks, was intercepted yesterday while being conveyed elsewhere. What will happen now, I do not know; first of all, a complaint lodged by the Baden government with the Federal Council, then, no doubt, my arrest or at least commitment for trial, etc. In either case, a terrific shindy! This briefly for your information; further communications, should I be prevented from making them myself, will reach you through a third party. When writing to me, address the envelope: "Mad. Brenner-Guéniard, magasin de modes, Basle" and, on the sealed enclosure for me, simply write "For Jacques". I shall deposit the manuscript on the coup d'état[4] in a safe place. Adieu. Before long, I hope, I shall be able to tell you more than I now know. Let me have a safe address; yours and Bamberger's are probably known.
Yours
Jacques[5]
Well, qu'en pensez-vous, mon cher maître renard?[6] Has the 'Suisse'[7] sold me to the Prussian government for cash? 6 weeks in a village on the other side of the border, the affectation of fear, not a word about the copies still in Switzerland, not a copy sent here despite my insistence!
It's enough to put one off writing altogether. This constant toil pour le roi de Prusse[8] !
Que faire?[9] For the 'Suisse' must not be allowed to get away with it like this.
Quant à[10] Dana, he has honoured my bill. Originally the 'worthy' Bamberger gave me £5 against it, but then kept me traipsing to and fro between here and the City for a fortnight, and it was not until this week that he finally paid out, after weeks of 'moaning' (literally) on the part of my landlady. Since then I have sent 7 more articles to the Tribune and another one goes off tomorrow.[11] I could now begin to see my way out of the wood but for the accursed dette consolidée[12] hanging round my neck. And even this would have been largely paid off had that wretched Swiss not precipitated me again into néant[13] .
To keep in with Dana I shall now be forced to write a somewhat longer article on haute politique[14] ! In other words, the détestable question orientale, regarding which a miserable YANKEE here is trying to compete with me in the Tribune. But this QUESTION is primarily military and geographical, hence outside my département. So you must once more exécuter[15] ? What is to become of the Turkish Empire is something I have no clue about. I cannot therefore present a general perspective.
However, for a newspaper article—in which, by the by, you must do your best to skirt the QUESTION as such in favour of its military, geographical and historical aspects—it seems to me that you should touch on the following basic points, which arise directly out of Montenegro[16] :
1. Despite all the chicanery and the political twaddle in the Press, the question orientale will never be the occasion for a European war. The diplomatists will keep quietly tinkering at it until here, too, a general hullabaloo puts an end to their tinkering.
2. ENCROACHMENTS OF RUSSIA in Turkey. Austria's greed. France's ambitions. England's interests. Commercial and military significance of this bone of contention.
3. Should there be a general hullabaloo, Turkey will compel England to come in on the revolutionary side, an Anglo-Russian clash being inevitable in such a case.
4. Inevitable disintegration of Mussulman Empire. D'une manière ou de l'autre[17] will fall into the hands of European civilisation.
At the present, you should dwell more particularly on the Montenegro affair, on the deplorable role England is now officially playing in it. The Sultan only yielded because France and England did not pledge their help. In this affair, both countries used the entente cordiale to mask their competing for the favours of the Holy Alliance.[18] You should point out that the ruling oligarchy in England is bound to fall if only because it has become incapable of performing its traditional role abroad, namely maintaining the pre-eminence of the English nation vis-à-vis the Continent.
Tout ça est très pauvre, mais enfin, il me faut un ou deux articles sur cette question pour tuer mon concurrent[19] !
Your
K. M.
Your translation of my Sutherland article[20] is splendid. I myself would seem to possess some talent for writing in English, if only I had a Flugel,[21] a grammar, and a better man than Mr Pieper to correct my work.
Today I shall again write to the Continent. Should I succeed, now that there's nothing doing with Schabelitz, in scraping together at least enough money to ensure my wife's peace of mind until a second bill has been drawn on Dana and returned—this time I intend to get him up to £30—I might perhaps come and spend a few days with you in April, pour restituer mes forces[22] . Then we could, for once, chat undisturbed about present conditions, which in my view must soon lead to an EARTHQUAKE.
According to The Morning Post, manufacturers in Lancashire have put all their hands on SHORT TIME, PROSPERITY is drawing to an end, etc.[23] What is the situation in this respect?
Your
K. M.
It's already 11.30 and Dronke has still not brought me No. II[24] . No doubt the fellow is still in bed. What milksops these chaps are!
With their idleness, lack of stamina and inability to sustain any PRESSURE FROM WITHOUT, they are absolutely hopeless. We must recruit our party entirely anew. Cluss is a good man. Reinhardt in Paris is hardworking. Lassalle, despite his many 'buts', is dur[25] and energetic. Pieper would not be without his uses if he possessed less childish vanité and more esprit de suite[26] . Imandt and Liebknecht are tenacious, and each is useful in his own way. But that doesn't add up to a party. Ex-lieutenant Steffen, ex-witness at the Cologne trial, at present a schoolmaster in an establishment near London, seems to me efficient. Lupus GROWS FROM DAY TO DAY OLDER AND BECOMES MORE CROTCHETY. Dronke is and ever will be a 'congenial loafer'.