Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 18, 1853

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 18 July 1853


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,] 18 July 1853 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

The day before yesterday I got a letter from Lassalle, who is now in a state of suspense, imagining letters have been inter- cepted, etc. It would have been good had you advised me whether or not the parcel had gone off to him.[1] Lassalle is still the only one who dares correspond with London, and we must therefore be careful not to put him off. So I would ask you to let me know what the position is about the parcel. The time of its dispatch is of importance to me in another way, i.e. because upon it depends the time of the RETURN.

The last mail brought my wife a most friendly and obliging letter from A. Dana[2] in which he states that he cannot possibly advise us of a business house in London and that AT ALL INSTANCES bills drawn by me will be promptly honoured. He says that my articles are 'HIGHLY VALUED BY THE PROPRIETORS OF THE TRIBUNE AND THE PUBLIC', and sets no limit on the quantity we send him.

In the debate on ADVERTISEMENT DUTY[3] —about a fortnight ago, I think—Mr Bright was loud in his praises of the New-York Tribune and gave an analysis of one of its numbers[4] —the very one containing my article on the budget.[5] This is what he said about it:

  • 'From Great Britain there is an elaborate disquisition on the Right Honourable Gentleman's[6] budget, doing him justice in some parts, but not in others, and doing certainly, as far as the Manchester School was concerned, no justice whatever.' *

As regards Jacobi, you must not allow yourself to be deterred by the gaucherie and inexperience of a 23-year-old stripling from the District of Minden who has spent 2 years in jug. He has a good background. I have read his doctoral dissertation and was 'MUCH PLEASED WITH IT'.

Your

K. M.

Jones has held some very important meetings which have even attracted the attention of the bourgeois press.[7]

  1. ↑ See this volume, p. 350.
  2. ↑ What about?
  3. ↑ J. Bright, Speech in the House of Commons on 1 July 1853, The Times, No. 21470, 2 July 1853.
  4. ↑ New-York Daily Tribune, No. 3761, 6 May 1853.
  5. ↑ K. Marx, 'Riot at Constantinople.—German Table Moving.—The Budget'.
  6. ↑ Gladstone
  7. ↑ In a campaign for a revival of the mass movement, leaders of the revolutionary Chartists headed by Jones organised mass meetings all over the country in June and July 1853. Most important were the meeting in Blackstone-Edge (19 June), the meeting and demonstration in Halifax on 26 June (see Note 408), and meetings in Oldham (27 June), Newcastle (3 July) and Mount Sorrel (10 July)