Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 15, 1854

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 15 December 1854


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


To Engels in Manchester

[London,] 15 December 1854
28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

I have just received your note and very much look forward to seeing you here in a week's time.[1]

Article received.[2]

Barthélemy's end is a GLORIOUS one.[3] At yesterday's hearing (or rather CORONERS INQUEST) it was said that important papers, though not relating to the assassination, had been found on him.[4] It would be annoying if these included papers from the old days, so that we seemed to be connected with a fellow who—or so the louts boasted—was 'saving up' a bullet for us in the event of our returning to Paris.

I haven't read the Bauer, so bring it with you.

Next week I start writing for the Neue Oder-Zeitung. 30 talers a month for the time being. I suppose, however, that the fellows will be satisfied with three articles a week. Not having the money to buy books, I cannot possibly bid adieu to my studies at the Museum[5] in return for 30 talers a month. Much though I dislike the thing, I've accepted it for the sake of my wife's peace of mind. Her PROSPECTS, of course, are GLOOMY.

What I particularly approved of in Ripley[6] was his not giving way to enthusiastic hyperbole. The strategic mistakes made in the Mexican War would seem to be self-explanatory in view of the total absence of plan. As for the nicer tactical blunders, I, OF COURSE, understand nothing of such matters. I should think that he took Napier[7] for his model, to judge by the way he depicts the Mexicans just as Napier does the Spaniards, and in the second place strives after FAIRNESS towards the opponents.

Tomorrow I shall be saddled with Blind and wife. This 'shinishter' Russophobe and 'repelbican' still insists that Baden is the real land of the future.

Salut. And give my regards to Lupus.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Engels went to London for Christmas 1853 and left for Manchester on 1 January 1854
  2. ↑ F. Engels, 'The Military Power of Austria'.
  3. ↑ In 1853, with the active support of the Polish democratic refugees, Alexander Herzen founded the Free Russian Press in London to evade tsarist censorhip. Pointing to this aspect of Herzen's activity, Lenin wrote in his article 'In Memory of Herzen' that he 'was the first to raise the great banner of struggle by addressing his free Russian word to the masses' (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 18, p. 31). Nikolai Ogarev, another prominent figure among the Russian revolutionary democrats, also took part in the management of the Free Russian Press. Besides a large number of books, pamphlets and leaflets, the Free Russian Press published the periodicals Полярная Звезда (The Polar Star) and Колокол (The Bell), which played a great part in developing the revolutionary and democratic movement in Russia. In April 1865 the Free Russian Press was moved to Geneva, where it continued functioning up to August 1867
  4. ↑ 'The Inquest', The Times, No. 21925, 15 December 1854.
  5. ↑ the Library of the British Museum
  6. ↑ R. S. Ripley, The War with Mexico, in two volumes.
  7. ↑ W. F. P. Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, from the Year 1807 to the Year 1814, vols. I-VI.