Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, April 24, 1860

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 24 April 1860


First published in: F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Bd. III, Stuttgart-Berlin 1922
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO FERDINAND LASSALLE

IN BERLIN

London, 24 April 1860
9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill

Dear Lassalle,

Many thanks for Humboldt[1] and Fichte.[2] I hadn't yet read the latter, and it was CLEVER of you to throw it into the fray. When your letter arrived, I got Engels to send me both your letter and the one from Counsellor Weber in Berlin. From this last I see that the matter of not mentioning his name applied solely to my public announcements in the newspapers3; hence I was, in this instance, labouring under a misapprehension.

Today I have heard from Weber. From his letter it would appear that he began by filing a criminal action. He then received the following communication dated 18th inst.

'The original documents are returned to Dr Carl Marx, c/o Counsellor Weber, together with the notification that no issue of public importance is raised by this matter which could make it desirable for me to take any action (Art. XVI of the Prolegomena to the Penal Code of April 14, 1851). Berlin, April 18, etc. Lippe.'

Weber has appealed to the Chief Public Prosecutor1 against this ruling. At the same time, in order to prevent its becoming statute-barred and to keep open another course of action, he has filed the action for injuria with the civil judge.

With my pamphlet[3] in view, I am, of course, having investigations made in Paris and Switzerland, and have even sent an emissaryc to Geneva. I now have proof that Vogt is a French agent. At the moment, he no longer feels safe in Geneva and is therefore sounding out the possibility of becoming a citizen of another canton.

Apropos. An acquaintance of mine—a Berliner—staunchly maintains that a certain Mayer or Meier,[4] of the firm Abraham M. and Co. (or Sons), who lives in Viktoriastrasse, Berlin, is the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Could you not get your lady friends to investigate?

Shall reply to your letter anon. No doubt you'll have left Berlin by the time this note reaches you.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Briefe von Alexander von Humboldt an Varnhagen von Ense aus den Jahren 1827 bis 1858, Leipzig, 1860.
  2. ↑ This refers to a note in The Times, No. 23533, 3 February 1860, on a statement by Vogt in connection with the annexation of Savoy and Nice then being prepared by France. To sidetrack attention from Napoleon III's real designs, Vogt declared that France was willing to let Switzerland have the neutral provinces of Savoy—Faucigny, Chablais and the Genevois—in return for the free use of the Simplon. The pro-Bonapartist content of this statement was exposed by Engels in the pamphlet Savoy, Nice and the Rhine (present edition, Vol. 16) and by Marx in Herr Vogt (present edition, Vol. 17, p. 195).
  3. ↑ Herr Vogt
  4. ↑ Later Marx learnt from Eduard Fischel's letter of 30 May 1860 that The Daily Telegraph's Berlin correspondent and the author of the item 'The Journalistic Auxiliaries of Austria', which contained a summary of Vogt's libellous pamphlet, was Karl Abel.