Letter to Karl Marx, October 3, 1859

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 3 October 1859


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


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 3 October 1859

Dear Moor,

What you wrote and told me about Das Volk was most welcome news. It now transpires that the philistine who raised an outcry had taken out a subscription with Thimm après tout.[1]

What's this about proceedings in the COUNTY COURT[2] ?

Because of sundry interruptions and an (otherwise insignificant) inflammation of the left eye which prevents me doing much writing by gas-light, 'Infantry' is not quite finished. You'll get it by Friday for sure.

My quarrel not settled yet and might still be damnably long-drawn-out. But I've got the scoundrel[3] pretty well pinned down and believe I can now stand back and watch; whatever happens, though, it's going to cost money—that's the most annoying thing about it; moreover, the LAW being what it is here, one can never be quite sure of one's case. At all events, things look a good deal better now.

The Free Press hadn't arrived the day before yesterday; I shall go and have another look presently. What sort of a branch is it that Urquhart has opened in Berlin?

So it now transpires that the Russian memorandum appeared in the Preussisches Wochenblatt (I've only just seen the August number of The Free Press.)[4] Apart from what's in The Free Press, have you any other scandalous stuff about great men[5] ?

Your

F. E.

Have a complete account made out for Thimm as soon as possible, i.e. covering the pre-Lessner period as well; the fellow apparently intends to pocket the money. But send me a full list of the people who subscribed through Thimm, so that I can keep a check on reimbursements and send round a circular telling people that they can reclaim their money from Thimm.

Siebel's indifferent verse[6] was sent to the Hermann behind Siebel's back by a chap in Germany to whom he had written enclosing it. He promptly wrote to the editors, and only then did he learn how this had come about.

  1. ↑ after all
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 495.
  3. ↑ Daniells
  4. ↑ Engels means Marx's article 'Particulars of Kossuth's Transaction with Louis Napoleon'.
  5. ↑ The 'great men' (the 'großen Männer') was the nickname Marx and Engels applied to German and other refugees, primarily petty-bourgeois democrats, who after the 1848-49 revolution engaged in pseudo-revolutionary activities, organised plots, raised 'revolutionary loans', formed governments in exile, and the like. In their joint work The Great Men of the Exile (present edition, Vol. 11) Marx and Engels gave a satirical description of some of them.—376, 500, 502
  6. ↑ 'Sprüche von Carl Siebel', Hermann, No. 33,20 August 1859. See this volume, p. 485.