Letter to Franz Duncker, February 20, 1860

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 February 1860


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


ENGELS TO FRANZ DUNCKER

IN BERLIN

Manchester, 20 February 1860
6 Thorncliffe Grove, Oxford Road

Dear Sir,

I am in receipt of your note of the 13th and regret that I am only now able to send the manuscript enclosed herewith.[1] I hardly imagine that it will run to more than 3 printed sheets.

I don't quite understand the provisos you make concerning considerations of principle, unless you wished to make a general proviso to the effect that you must see the manuscript beforehand.[2] I cannot believe that you wish to assume moral, logical and aesthetic responsibility for everything you publish, from Marx to Jacobus Venedey and from Lassalle to Palleske, or to associate your publishing house with the line of the Volks-Zeitung, on which I cannot comment since it is not to be had in Manchester. If, however, the considerations of principle are connected with Lassalle's pamphlet on Italy,[3] which admittedly does not tally with my views on the subject, I do, of course, respect such reservations on your part, but I also know that Lassalle is certainly the last person who would wish this to be taken into account. I am therefore writing to Lassalle[4] in the firm conviction that he would consider it an insult, were he thought capable of doing the slightest thing to obstruct the publication of a piece that differed from his own views on the subject.

[Should][5] you feel, however, that the pamphlet is unacceptable to your publishing house by reason of its length or its principles, I would request you to deliver it within twenty-four hours of receipt to Mr B. Afinger (Sculptor), Linienstrasse 173, Berlin.

I have sent the letter to Borkheim. I remain,

Yours truly,

Friedrich Engels

  1. ↑ F. Engels, Savoy, Nice and the Rhine.
  2. ↑ As can be seen from Duncker's letter to Engels of 27 February 1860, he disagreed with Engels in assessing the stand taken by the various German political parties on the Italian question and therefore insisted on Savoy, Nice and the Rhine being published under the author's name. Engels, for his part, wanted a mere statement that the pamphlet was by the author of Po and Rhine (see this volume, p. 25 and Note 68).
  3. ↑ [F. Lassalle,] Der italienische Krieg und die Aufgabe Preussens. Eine Stimme aus der Demokratie, Berlin, 1859.
  4. ↑ See this volume, pp. 51-52.
  5. ↑ Illegible.