Letter to Karl Marx, March 11, 1857

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 March 1857


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXII, Moscow, 1929
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 11 March 1857

Dear Marx,

It's rather as though God and the universe had conspired to stop me writing to you. Whenever I think I have caught up to some extent with my commercial rubbish, I discover a whole pile of unsuspected arrears, am overrun by chaps, have to reply to hundreds of business queries on behalf of my old man and pander to fresh whims of Mr Gottfr.'s.[1] Just to make sure that I am sitting really fast, Freiligrath saddles me with Prussian ex-lieutenants, dabblers in bonds, who spend the entire day trying to borrow money (something he, Freiligrath, himself thought fit to warn me against) and who, after their departure, send me pawn tickets so that I can redeem their watches at my own expense. I am not in the least obliged to Freiligrath for landing me with the importu-nate fellow.[2] What is more I wrote to him today about my adventure with the brute. Let him clear the business up himself.

Last Friday[3] Mr Ernst Dronke turned up at the office all of a sudden from Glasgow. He was here for only an hour or two on business. I saw him almost exclusively in the presence of Charles,[4] when it wouldn't have done to argue with him or treat him roughly. On top of that his arrival was so sudden that I was unable to recall all of his intrigues. I treated him with reserve, just as I would treat an ordinary commercial traveller with whom I was only superficially acquainted and confined my remarks to trifling matters, and he was extremely careful to avoid any subject relating to the party. He shoved off during the afternoon and intends to come back in May, at which time I shall probably be in London. I hope he will remain a commerçant all his days; he certainly looks the part and the carefree existence seems greatly to his liking.

I presume you got the £5 note I sent you last Friday (or was it Thursday?).

The TORIES, FREETRADERS and Peelites could have done Pam no greater favour than put him in a minority over this question.[5]

What luck the fellow has and how stupid are his opponents! There is a great deal of agitation up here just now, but since 4,000 new VOTERS are on the register, all small SHOPKEEPERS and CLERKS and OVERLOOKERS, and therefore predominantly pro-Bright, it is unlikely that there will be any change. Bob Lowe and Sir J. Potter (A BORN ALDERMAN 135 and once a mighty wencher) are to be nominated here. WILL NOT DO. YOU could probably let me have some details about Bob Lowe's early exploits in Australia and elsewhere. These would be very useful just now. 136

What is the price of Mieroslawski's thick book on Poland?[6] It's really essential to have a compendium of this kind—and what is the price of Lelewel's work on which it is based,[7] if you can find this out?

I shall, by the way, send you a few more Guardians, they contain some really capital witticisms. I suppose you got the six copies I sent you recently (IN 2 LOTS)? Morny has already smelt a rat good and proper; these purchases the fellow is making in Russia must worry Bonaparte to death. That was also a fine to-do over the Docks Napoléon, Berryer jeune[8] and Fox,Henderson & Co.[9] —you must have read about it in The Times?

I'm most anxious to hear how the Tribune affair is progressing and likewise what you wrote to Olmsted. I think that I shall shortly be able to start work again and will see whether anything can be made out of China. The affair is bound to yield some interesting military aspect[10] But no hope of that so long as I have to slave away in the office until 8 o'clock each evening and can't start work till 10 o'clock, after SUPPER, etc., etc., is over. At present I have to be at the office by 10 o'clock in the morning at the very latest and ACCORDINGLY go to bed at about one. C'est embêtant![11] Just when one has really got into one's stride, one has to go to bed; cela ne va pas. Enfin, nous verrons[12] This summer things have got to be reorganised, otherwise there'll be a rumpus at the office. I intend to organise myself in such a way that I work from 10 to 5 or 6 and then leave and be damned to the business.

Warm regards to your wife and children. You are all well, I hope?

Tout à toi.[13]

F. E.

  1. ↑ Gottfried Ermen
  2. ↑ Hugo von Selmnitz
  3. ↑ 6 March
  4. ↑ Charles Roesgen
  5. ↑ Engels means the vote of no confidence in Palmerston's government after a debate on the Anglo-Chinese conflict in the House of Commons lasting from 26 February to 3 March 1857. The conflict has been provoked by the bombardment of Canton in October 1856 in retaliation for the Chinese authorities' arrest of a contraband vessel sailing under the British flag. The bombardment was the prelude to another colonial war by Britain—later in alliance with France—against China, the Second Opium War (1856-60). After the vote Palmerston dissolved Parliament, and in the new election his candidates, who supported the aggression against China, beat the Opposition even in their stronghold, Manchester, securing a majority for Palmerston in the House of Commons. Marx dealt with these events in several articles published in the New-York Daily Tribune in March and April 1857 (see present edition, Vol. 15). The Free Traders advocated non-interference of the state in the economy. Their stronghold was Manchester (hence the Manchester School and the Manchester Party). In the 1840s and 1850s the Free Traders were an independent political group which later formed the Left wing of the Liberal Party. The Peelites were moderate Tories advocating concessions to the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie. The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 by their leader, Robert Peel, caused a split in the Tory party, with the Peelites forming an independent group that allied itself with the Whigs. In the late 1850s they joined the Liberal Party.—104, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115
  6. ↑ L. Mieroslawski, De la nationalité polonaise dans l'équilibre européen.
  7. ↑ J. Lelevel, Histoire de Pologne, Tomes I-II.
  8. ↑ junior
  9. ↑ The fraudulent machinations of the Docks Napoleon joint-stock company and the breach by Napoleon Ill's government of its promise to keep young Arthur Berryer, who was implicated in the machinations, out of trouble if his father, the well-known lawyer Pierre Antoine Berryer, refrained from denunciations embarrassing to the ruling quarters, were later discussed by Marx in his article 'Portents of the Day' (present edition, Vol. 15).—105
  10. ↑ This probably refers to a report from Paris in The Times, No. 22624. 10 March 1857.
  11. ↑ It's a nuisance!
  12. ↑ that won't do. Well, we shall see.
  13. ↑ All yours.