Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 20, 1858

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 20 July 1858


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

London, 20 July 1858 9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill

Dear Engels,

When your letter arrived on Saturday I did not reply immediately because I first wanted to see what response I got to another 'ATTEMPT' before taking advantage of the authorisation you gave me. On Monday, however, I received an answer in the negative. Hence any further delay seemed impracticable. Accord- ingly to Freiligrath. Today he informed me in writing that the thing could be proceeded with on the TERMS you proposed, but not until 3 August since his USURER was unable to go ahead any earlier. I shall therefore write and tell him to put the business in hand by 3 August.

On Saturday I had a long letter from my mother. For I had asked Mrs Liebknecht, who was going to Germany, to take the old girl a portrait of our youngest child[2] with a brief note in which I

mentioned my being frequently ill but said nothing about o u r other circumstances.[3] T h e old girl's letter is such as to suggest the possibility of a meeting between us a few weeks hence. IF SO, I SHOULD ARRANGE THINGS. But I mustn't be too pressing IN THIS RESPECT. Otherwise she will promptly draw BACK.

T h a n k you for the Tribune article.[4] More tomorrow.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ This letter was first published in an abridged English translation in The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliff, New Jersey, 1979.—12, 30, 45, 54, 61, 67, 70, 93, 110, 128, 132, 224, 227, 254, 265, 319, 333, 359, 407, 430, 448, 459, 461, 518, 524
  2. ↑ Eleanor Marx
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 567 69.
  4. ↑ This presumably refers to Engels' article written between 16 and 20 July 1858 and published in the New-York Daily Tribune on 13 August. Marx made an entry in his notebook on 27 July about the despatch of the article to New York, giving its heading as 'Transport of Troops to India' (see present edition, Vol. 15). The Tribune editors introduced changes into the article and printed it under the heading 'How the Indian War has been Mismanaged'.—334