Letter to Karl Marx, April 6, 1866

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 6 April 1866


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO MARX

IN MARGATE

Manchester, 6 April 1866

Dear Moor,

That the Russians are behind the Prussians at once struck me as very probable, too. The mere fact that the Austrian paper guilder is almost at par again and will thus have to be disturbed again, aroused suspicion, but the simultaneous Cuza affair[1] even more so, and ce cher[2] Bismarck would not have put out all his efforts if he did not have the Russians behind him. It is possible that things are so far committed already that neither Bismarck nor that old jackass William have a say in the matter any more and that it depends entirely on the whim of the St Petersburgers whether there shall be war or peace. How clumsily this Bismarck is acting, incidentally. It is too absurd how he tries to represent the poor Austrians as the attacking party. Even more splendid, however, is the fact that the fellow is seriously thinking of convening a German parliament on 1 June to reform the federal constitution. This is to be a remedy against the smaller states: he—lui Bismarck—is appealing to the people instead of to the governments. That even called forth universal derisive laughter from the German philistines.[3]

After the upheaval that has occurred on The Commonwealth,"[4] by the way, I was no longer able to get the said articles[5] to the editors on time, as they would have had to take the roundabout route via Margate, so I am sending them to you for the next number. I found the relevant data on the emancipation of the Russian serfs in an article by Mazade, Revue des II Mondes."[6]

And how is your health now? You haven't had any further carbuncles or small furuncles? And how are you otherwise, are you building yourself up? Are you still visiting old Cantuar"" per pedes'1? The arsenic must be taken for at least 3 months, and will not do you the slightest harm anyway.

Otherwise, there is nothing new here except for a foul east wind and clouds of dust.

How much longer are you thinking of staying in Margate? At least until the end of this month, I hope?

Reform movement—general admission of general indolence. What a tiny INSTALMENT! 31D

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ A reference to Alexander Cuza's abdication in February 1866. Cuza was Hospodar of Moldavia and Wallachia, which united in 1862 into the single Romanian state. The coup d'état was approved of by Russia and France, and was supported by Prussia. The boyar-bourgeois coalition, which was dissatisfied with the progressive reforms introduced by Cuza, invited Prince Charles Hohenzollern-Sigmarinen, a relative of the Prussian King, to the throne in March 1866. The new hospodar soon began to pursue a policy of subjecting Romania to the economic and political interests of Germany.
  2. ↑ that dear
  3. ↑ In the spring of 1866 the conflict between Prussia and Austria sharpened over their joint possession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The Bismarck government regarded Austria as its main rival in the struggle for hegemony in Germany and sought for a casus belli. With this aim in view it accused Austria, which ruled Holstein, of encouraging the anti-Prussian movement there. Austria rejected Prussia's accusations and on 16 March 1866 sent a circular dispatch to several member states of the German Confederation (a union of German states founded by the Vienna Congress in 1815) asking for their mediation in the conflict or military assistance against Prussia. Prussia in its turn also sought the support of the German Confederation. In its circular dispatch of 24 March 1866 to the German states, the Prussian government proposed a reform of the political and military institutions of the German Confederation. Bismarck demagogically proposed that this reform be carried out through a German parliament elected on the basis of universal suffrage.
  4. ↑ See this volume, pp. 252-54.
  5. ↑ F. Engels, 'What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?'
  6. ↑ 'La Russie sous l'empereur Alexandre II.— La société et le gouvernement russes depuis l'insurrection polonaise', Revue des deux Mondes, Vol. 62, 15 March 1866.