Letter to Friedrich Engels, September 1, 1855

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 1 September 1855


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 28, Moscow, 1962
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 1 September 1855 3 York Place, Denmark,[1]

Camberwell

Dear Frederic,

Imandt has gone off to Montrose and chucked up his whole CONCERN here for the highly dubious prospect of a post in Arbroath. I have taken over his goods and chattels and shall remain here until the arrival of the Scotch money. Then I shall rent some decent lodgings. Until then I shall have to keep the house in Dean Street. The country air has suited the whole FAMILY uncommonly well, my wife especially.

Received your article[2] yesterday. The Russian report is now in all the Hamburg papers as well.

As regards Putnam's, we must now get a move on. In a letter I got from Dana he already evinced anxiety lest No. 2[3] should arrive too late. But it was there on time, as I see from a subsequent letter.[4] Putnam has asked for another article on 'THE IMPROVEMENTS IN MODERN WARFARE'. The New-York Times contains criticism which is generally favourable, but clearly grudging: off duty, Englishmen don't wear 'narrow trousers', their squadrons number more than 400 SABRES, and [5] after 'SABRES' too, and, lastly, the writer seems to be unaware that in England flogging is now restricted to 50 strokes and is inflicted only in exceptional cases. The business at Aldershot where, ABOUT H DAYS ago, a SOLDIER died from 30 strokes of the lash, is comment enough on the criticus concerning whose nonsense I have sent Dana the requisite observations.[6]

Have you been following Napier's row with Graham? The 1st article was in The Times, the 2nd in the Advertiser and the Herald?[7] Today the Advertiser's first LEADER contains the exchange of letters between Charley and James. A reply from Graham to Napier's first articles is also, it seems, to appear in one of today's papers.

I wonder whether you have noticed that the Austrians made use of the time they were deploying their armies in Galicia to construct, under Hess' general supervision, railways of solely strategic importance; likewise fortifications directed against Russia.

I hope that you will now write and tell me something about yourself and your doings.

Your

K. M.

Unless I am mistaken, our Koscielski also appears in Pélissier's battle report.[8]

If Admiral Bruat's account in today's Times[9] is to be believed, the Russians are at STARVATION-POINT. At any rate, there would not as yet appear to be any shortage of spirits.

  1. ↑ Should be: Denmark street (see this volume, pp. 547 and 550).
  2. ↑ F. Engels, 'The Battle of the Chernaya'.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, 'The Armies of Europe', Second Article.
  4. ↑ Dana to Marx, 7 August 1855. Dana's second letter has not been found.
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 526.
  6. ↑ Marx's letter to Dana has not been found
  7. ↑ This name was given in England to Free Traders who advocated government non-interference in economic life. In the 1840s and 1850s the Manchester men formed a separate political group which joined the Liberal Party as its Left wing in the 1860s. The centre of Free Traders' agitation headed by two textile manufacturers, Richard Cobden and John Bright, was Manchester
  8. ↑ A. Pélissier, [Report on the Battle of the Chernaya. 18 August 1855,] The Times, No. 22146, 30 August 1855.
  9. ↑ The Times, No. 22148, 1 September 1855.