Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, May 29, 1861

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 29 May 1861


First published in: F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Bd. III, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1922
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


MARX TO FERDINAND LASSALLE

IN BERLIN

[London,] 29 May 1861

Dear Lassalle,

I have written to a friend[1] in Germany who, I hope, will send you the remaining £10 (67 talers) within a week at the latest. I'm horribly put out by this business, but my uncle,[2] as is the wont of such old gentlemen, while on the whole doing what he promised, is at least creating difficulties for me.

Because of conditions over there,[3] my American articles[4] continue to be wholly in abeyance for the time being, and will so continue until circumstances in Europe again acquire some interest for the TRANSATLANTICS.

In Paris the workers are in a most sorry plight as a result of the American crisis. Ditto in Lyons.

The whole of the official press in England is, of course, in favour of the SLAVEHOLDERS. They are the selfsame fellows who have wearied the world with their ANTISLAVE TRADE philanthropy. But

COTTON, COTTON!

Engels has been here on a three-day visit. He is not yet going to move. If he did so, he'd have to give up his position, break his contract and incur severe financial loss, and this, he declares, he is unwilling to do SAVE IN DECISIVE TIMES, nor has he any intention of falling, perhaps before 3 months are out, into the clutches of Prussia's common law WITHOUT DOING ANY GOOD TO ANYBODY.[5] Circumstances, he thinks, are not yet ripe for the setting up of a paper. He thanks you very much for the MILITARY MAPS.

In my letter to the countess which you passed on to her, I gave her a more circumstantial and accurate account of Bonaparte's infamy vis-à-vis Blanqui, indeed of the WHOLE CASE! No doubt she will have told you about it. Please convey my kindest regards to her. I hope she is now in better health.

I am curious to hear more about your TRANSACTIONS with the Prussian government. THANKS for the zeal you have displayed.

To help overcome the intense annoyance I feel about my IN EVERY RESPECT UNSETTLED SITUATION, I am reading Thucydides.[6] At least, these Ancients remain ever new.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Carl Siebel
  2. ↑ Lion Philips
  3. ↑ See notes 253 and 285.
  4. ↑ Marx means his articles for the New York Daily Tribune.
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 290.
  6. ↑ Thucydides, De bello peloponnesiaco.