Letter to Collet Dobson Collet, October 23, 1856

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written


First published in: Marx and Engels. Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV. Moscow, 1934. Reproduced from the original. Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO COLLET DOBSON COLLET[1]

IN LONDON

[Draft] [London,] 23 October 1856

Dear Sir,

Having been absent from London during the last month, and seeing that your paper professed to be wanting space, I have deferred the continuation of my articles until to day. In transmitting the inclosed new manuscript it occurs to me that, from the difference in size between the old and new Free Press,[2]

it would be desirable to come to a new understanding as to the terms on which my contributions to your paper are to take place.

In answer to your last letter I have to state that it is indifferent to me whether you reprint the old pamphlets in large or small type, but as to documents never before published I consider it would be spoiling the case to put them in small type. Concerning the alleged desirability of my own comments not taking the form of notes, you will see that this is being done only where really expedient, and that under the form of introductions to the different chapters they occupy already the space of the text. Lastly as to the suggestion of drawing parallelisms between the epoch I treat upon and the present time, it has been anticipated to a certain extent in the chapters you published. To trace systematically these parallelisms more would be altering my plan, which is rather to give new materials for a new history, than new reflections on well-known materials. To satisfy the wants of his readers in that respect I hold to be rather the duty of the editor.

  1. ↑ This draft is written in Wilhelm Pieper's hand, the date in Marx's.
  2. ↑ This refers to the continued publication of Marx's Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century in The Free Press (see Note 61). From 16 August 1856 the paper was increased from four pages to eight. Marx and Engels called the enlarged edition the new Free Press (see, e.g., Engels' letter to Marx of 31 March 1857, this volume, p. 117).—76, 117