Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 19, 1859

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 19 July 1859


First published abridged in Der Briefwech- sel 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


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 19 July 1859

DEAR Frederick,

I would gladly have written the article on the peace, for it would simply have meant combining last Friday's and today's articles for the Tribune.[1] They were, moreover, good articles, for ira facit poetam.[2]

However, as Biskamp has begun the thing, has already announced No. II,[3] and is effectively, or at least nominally, in command, decency precludes one interfering in this way. Once he is in Edmonton, his very remoteness will ensure that at crucial moments such as this the

LEADER can be taken out of his hands without hurt to his amour propre—which is all he gets out of it.

But what the two of us can do to put some stiffening into the next issue, is support him on his left and right flanks. On the pretext of discussing Urquhart's document,[4] I shall briefly sum up Russia's PART in this tragi-comedy and at the same time disparage Bonaparte.[5] You, on the pretext of writing a final article on military affairs,[6] must also set about Bonaparte, etc. (and on the same occasion take a swipe at Prussia). In my view it is of the utmost importance morally that a belief in Bonaparte's greatness should not be allowed to arise among the Germans. As for Austria, the agreed LINE we have adopted of blaming everything on the sovereign[7] is SUFFICIENT.

Ad vocem[8] the document. Fell into the hands of the 'Prince of Prussia'[9] during the regency crisis on the occasion of Manteuffel's sudden removal.[10] More than that is not to be coaxed out of Urquhart's idiots. Certain passages have been forged because they didn't get hold of the complete document.[11] The authenticity of the whole is vouched for by the style peculiar to all, even 'secret', Russian documents, in which certain stereotyped, conventional untruths take turn and turn about. It is a LINE even Pozzo di Borgo adopts in his writing. The plain truth about Russia's machinations comes to light only with the chance publication of the documents of Russian agents not in the direct employ of the Russian state. E.g. Theyls' (a Dutchman) and Patkul's (came out in Berlin in 1796) memoirs and correspondence.[12]

Portfolio. I shall obtain for you (and myself) from Paris the complete edition published there of the PAPERS of which the Portfolio was allowed to contain only those authorised by Palmer- ston.

Volk. Agents' remuneration reduced to ½d. Expenditure has been heavy because Biskamp required personal sustenance; because the rows the fellows were having with each other during my absence[13] meant that the administration was at sixes and sevens; because the entire staff has been changed since my return. By the end of the week I shall have a full statement of accounts. This involves a great deal of work in view of the way the thing has been run hitherto. £4-£5 worth of advertising will have to be obtained this week in order to liquidate the debt to Hollinger for Nos 9 and 10.

Biskamp wanted to write a short review of my Critique of Political Economy, etc. I dissuaded him, for he knows nothing about the subject. But since he has undertaken (in the Volk) to say something about it, I should like you to do it for him[14] (say next week, but not this). Briefly on the method and what is new in the content. In this way you would set the tone for the correspondents down here. And likewise help frustrate Lassalle's plan to KILL me.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Marx refers to his articles 'The Peace' and 'The Treaty of Villafranca'.
  2. ↑ Anger gives wings to one's words. An allusion to 'Facit indignatio versum'—'Indignation makes verse' (Juvenal, Satires, I, 79).
  3. ↑ [E. Biskamp,] 'Der Friede von Villa Franca', Das Volk, No. 11, 16 July 1859. The second instalment was published in the next issue of Das Volk on 23 July.
  4. ↑ 'Memoir on Russia, for the Instruction of the Present Emperor', The Free Press, No. 7, 13 July 1859.
  5. ↑ Marx means his series of articles "Quid pro Quo", which he began publishing in Das Volk (see present edition, Vol. 16, pp. 445-64). The series remained unfinished as the newspaper ceased publication. In the published instalments the 'Memoir on Russia' was not dealt with.—470
  6. ↑ F. Engels, 'The Italian War. Retrospect'.
  7. ↑ Francis Joseph I
  8. ↑ As regards
  9. ↑ i. e. William
  10. ↑ In view of the insanity of Frederick William IV of Prussia the question arose of appointing Regent his brother, Prince William of Prussia (later King and Emperor William I). The Prussian bourgeoisie hoped that the Regency would lead to liberal reforms and remove Manteuffel's reactionary ministry, although the reactionary measures taken by the Prince of Prussia in 1848 gave little ground for such hopes. Nevertheless, similar illusions about the advent of 'a new era' were widespread among liberal monarchist circles. Prince William was appointed Regent on 7 October 1858.—346, 348, 410, 470, 571
  11. ↑ In publishing the 'Memoir on Russia' on 13 July 1859 the editors of The Free Press wrote that the document had been discovered during the 'Prussian ministerial crisis'. This put Engels on his guard and made him, like Marx (see his letter to Engels of 19 July 1859, this volume, p. 470), doubt the authenticity of some of the passages. And indeed, from subsequent issues of The Free Press (of 27 and 31 July 1859) it appeared that the publication was based not on the original document but on material published in the German conservative newspaper Preussisches Wochenblatt zur Besprechung politischer Tagesfragen, Nos. 23, 24 and 25, June 9, 16 and 23, 1855. This publication quoted neither the source from which the document had been taken nor its title or the full text. Later Bismarck in his memoirs (Gedanken und Erinnerungen, Stuttgart, 1898, Bd. 1, S. 111-112) stated outright that the publication had been a forgery. Though Marx and Engels were sceptical about the document, they did not know that it was completely false. Therefore Marx had it reprinted, from The Free Press, in the New-York Daily Tribune (early August) and in Das Volk (late July-early August 1859) prefacing it with an 'Introductory Note' (see present edition, Vol. 16, p. 415).—468, 470, 476
  12. ↑ W. Theyls, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Charles XII, roi de Suède; J. R. von Patkul, Berichte an das Zaarische Cabinet in Moscau, von seinem Gesandschafts Posten bei August II, Könige von Polen, Th. I III.
  13. ↑ Marx came to Engels in Manchester approximately on 12 June 1859 to discuss questions connected with the publication of Das Volk. From Manchester he went to Scotland to visit former members of the Communist League Peter Imandt and Heinrich Heise, with whom he discussed the financing of the paper. Marx returned to London about 2 July.—459, 462, 470, 472, 497, 520, 538
  14. ↑ Engels did write a review: 'Karl Marx. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'.