Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 22, 1863

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 22 December 1863


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in English in The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

Zalt-Bommel, 22 December 1863

Dear Engels,

You will see from the address that I am back in Holland, where I arrived safely yesterday. In Trier, where the papers and effects left by my mother had been placed under seal, the unsealing could not take place because the Dutch powers of attorney, which must pass through the hands of an endless succession of authorities, had not yet arrived. I left a power of attorney for my brother-in-law Conradi for submission to the Department of Trier and proceeded to headquarters here, firstly because my uncle[1] holds by far the largest part of the assets, secondly because he is the executor of the will. However, in any case it will be another 5-6 weeks before I receive payment of the money. Since my wife has to pay a butcher's BILL for £10 on 10 January 1864 (i.e. a bill of exchange), I should be very glad if you could attend to it.

The carbuncle has gone the way of all flesh, but now for good measure my back is wickedly plagued with furuncles and last night, for example, thanks to these pestilential objects, I couldn't get a wink of sleep which would, after all, only have been fair after travelling here from Frankfurt a.M. The husband[2] of a cousin[3] of mine is the town's only doctor and medical officer of health, so I am not in want of Aesculapian assistance.

Throughout the Rhine Province, from Trier to Frankfurt a.M. and thence via Giessen and Cologne right up to the Dutch frontier, I heard nothing but abuse of Prussia. Little, very little, Schleswig-Holsteinianism. For the most part, it was regarded as 'Prussian artfulness'.

I spent only one day in Frankfurt (where I had to visit two old aunts[4] ) and hence wasn't able to see any publishers. However, I spoke to an acquaintance who will write to me here (after he has consulted with a publisher on my behalf).[5]

When writing your pamphlet[6] it might be better if you were now to include some actual events as well, not forgetting the systematic blunders perpetrated by the Prussian government, the men of Progress[7] and the regular—since 1815 inveterate— Schleswig-Holstein HUMBUGGERS.[8]

Salut.

Your

K. M.

You might drop me a line or two. Address Charles Marx, CARE OF Mr Lion Philips, Zalt-Bommel, Holland.

Tu n'es pas un Yankee, s'écria le fanatique... Depuis que tu es ici, je t'observe. Dans la figure du Saxon il y a du taureau et du loup; dans la tienne il y a du singe et du chien. Tu as peur de la liberté, tu parles de ce que tu ne sais pas, et tu fais des phrases. Tu es un Français![9] (195-196, Paris en Amérique by Edouard Laboulaye.) (Paris 1863.)

  1. ↑ Lion Philips
  2. ↑ Dr. A. van Anrooij
  3. ↑ Henriette van Anrooij, née Philips
  4. ↑ Esther Kosel and Babette Blum
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 498.
  6. ↑ ibid., p. 496.
  7. ↑ Engels means the victory won by the Party of Progress at the elections to Prussia's Chamber of Deputies in November and December 1861. The Party of Progress, formed in June 1861, spoke for the German bourgeoisie. Its slogans were the unification of Germany under the aegis of Prussia, the convocation of an all-German Parliament, and the formation of a strong liberal Ministry responsible to the Chamber of Deputies. Fearing a popular revolution, the Party of Progress gave no support to the basic democratic demands — universal suffrage, freedom of the press, freedom of association and freedom of assembly.
  8. ↑ The Schleswig-Holstein question was prominent in nineteenth-century European diplomacy. The Congress of Vienna (1815) recognised the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein to be possessions of Denmark in personal union with the Danish King. At the same time, Holstein was declared a member of the German Confederation. During the 1848-49 revolution, an anti-Danish national liberation movement developed in the duchies which was, however, defeated. At a conference in London attended by representatives of Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Russia and Sweden, a protocol on the Danish succession was signed on 2 August 1850 which proclaimed the indivisibility of the Danish Crown possessions, including the two duchies. This document formed the basis for the London Protocol of 8 May 1852 on the integrity of the Danish monarchy (see Note 380). Denmark's attempts to fully subject the duchies aggravated Danish-Prussian relations and were exploited as a pretext for intervention by Prussia, which regarded the reunification of Schleswig and Holstein with Germany as the first step towards the union of Germany under Prussia's aegis.
  9. ↑ 'You're not a Yankee, the fanatic exclaimed... I've been watching you ever since you've been here. A Saxon's face has something of a bull and a wolf; yours has something of a monkey and a dog. You're afraid of liberty, you speak of things you know nothing about and you use an affected language. You're a Frenchman!'