Letter to Karl Marx, March 1, 1858

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 1 March 1858


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXII, Moscow, 1929
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 1 March 1858

Dear Marx,

On Wednesday, 24 February, I sent you a registered letter containing R/J 56641, Manchester, 16 Jan. 1857; a five-pound note. I trust that it reached you. If not, STOP PAYMENT at the Bank IMMEDIATELY. This evening I shall also send DIVERSE Guardians; another batch went off last Wednesday at the same time as the letter. In today's you'll find some interesting stuff about Orsini.

The shabby way in which Pam, as he made his exit, unleashed all manner of political persecution—first Bernard and Allsop and now that poor devil of a PUBLISHER[1] —was quite a lark. But even this hasn't put John Bull off his TRULY BRITISH MINISTER,[2] just a little grumbling here and there about the 2 cives Romani in Naples.[3] VERILY, the fellow has left an offensive stench behind him.

In today's Guardian you will see that in Preston, etc., etc., SHORT TIME is still the order of the day. Will soon be general again. At present prices MANUFACTURERS are losing on most things, while spinners are just able to subsist, and to subsist well in the case of a few articles. As soon as rising prices CHECK demand (hitherto the fear of still higher prices has momentarily increased it), that too will cease and the fun begin all over again.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ Edward Truelove
  2. ↑ Truly British Minister—an allusion to Lord Russell's description of Palmerston as a champion of British interests in his House of Commons speech of 20 June 1850, in which he sought to justify Palmerston's military and diplomatic moves against Greece in connection with the burning in Athens in 1847 of the house of the merchant Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew and British subject. Lord Russell argued that Palmerston was motivated by the need to uphold the prestige of British citizens. The actual aim of Palmerston's moves was to make Greece surrender several strategic islands in the Aegean.—107, 116, 276, 431
  3. ↑ By '2 cives romani [Roman citizens]' Engels means the British Prime Minister Palmerston and Napoleon III. (He alludes here to the Latin expression 'civis Romanus sum'—'I am a Roman citizen' cited by Palmerston in his speech in the House of Commons on 25 June 1850.) Engels has in mind in particular their intention to send an English and a French squadron to the shores of Naples at the end of 1856 under the pretext of bringing pressure to bear on the reactionary regime there (see Note 103), and their repressive measures against democrats in France and Britain after Orsini's attempt on the life of Napoleon III.— 276