Letter to Karl Marx, September 16, 1868

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 16 September 1868


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


ENGELS TO MARX[1]

IN LONDON

Manchester, 16 September 1868

Dear Moor,

I can only write briefly and badly, I have rheumatism in my right hand and have been writing all the afternoon.

Enclosed a ten-pound note. When Borkheim returns, you absolutely must force him to undertake some sort of coup, if nothing else can be done. You will understand that I myself find things rather tight at the moment. Did you ever write to Meissner asking for a settling of accounts? With the workers bombarding from all sides now, the burking will soon come to an end, and the second edition[2] will not have to be awaited for long. Now is the time to insert a new advertisement for the book. Think one out, I shall send it to Meissner, whom I owe an answer anyway. But don't put it off. Furthermore, Meissner should be sent The Times with the resolution of the Germans in Brussels, the Demokratisches Wochenblatt of yesterday,[3] etc., the man must be kept happy. If you have not done it, do it (I can no longer get that No. of The Times here). And then the exchange value, too, will gradually come into effect for you.

The things in The Times in Eccarius' report[4] will be a big help to you here, and MR Morley will be amazed.[5] The papers here also carry fairly full extracts from the report (but most in The Daily News).

The congress went well after all. The method of conducting the babble in public and the BUSINESS on the quiet has worked splendidly. So, the COUNCIL will remain in London, and once again the Proudhonists have only the satisfaction of having resolved that they are Proudhonists, and nobody else is.

One might also send Meissner the No. of the Zukunft about Lloyd, etc., in which you are mentioned twice. I can do all this, if you want.

Moses Hess amused me greatly.[6]

But the question now arises: Has not a popular short presentation of the content of your book for workers become an urgent necessity? If it is not written, some Moses or other will come along and do it and botch it up. What do you think of it?

Enclosed also Eichhoff back.[7]

It is impossible to leave without stupidities being committed. While I was away,[8] the fellows on the comité of the Schiller Institute,[9] acting on the suggestion of the Bradfordians, invited that swine Vogt to give a lecture here. I naturally announced my resignation at once, 'in order not to give an indirect vote of confidence to a man who, I considered it proved, was a paid Bonapartist agent in 1859'.[10] The swine is coming tomorrow.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters on 'Capital', London, New Park Publications, 1983.
  2. ↑ the second German edition of Volume I of Capital
  3. ↑ At the Brussels Congress of the International (see Note 138), on 11 September 1868, a group of German delegates moved the following resolution on Marx's Capital: 'We, the German delegates at the International Working Men's Congress at Brussels, recommend to the working men of all countries the work of Carl Marx, Das Kapital, published last year, and urge upon them the desirability of endeavouring to cause that important work to be translated into those languages into which it has not yet been translated, and declare that Carl Marx has the inestimable merit of being the first political economist who has scientifically analysed capital and dissolved it into its component parts.' The resolution was unanimously approved by the Congress and published in The Times on 15 September 1868 as part of Eccarius's report. See also Note 136.
    The article 'Der fünfte Vereinstag deutscher Arbeitervereine zu Nürnberg (5-7. September)', which appeared in the Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 37, 12 September 1868, quoted Liebknecht's speech at the Nuremberg Congress of the Union of German Workers' Associations (see Note 135), in which he lashed out against bourgeois science and the press which kept deliberately silent about Volume One of Capital.— 99, 101
  4. ↑ [J. G. Eccarius,] 'The International Working Men's Congress. (From a Correspondent)', The Times, No. 26230, 15 September 1868.
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 81.
  6. ↑ Marx is referring to a speech made by Moses Hess at the meeting of the Brussels Congress of the International Working Men's Association on 11 September 1868. Hess spoke out against the Proudhonist theory of 'gratuitous credit' (credit gratuit), which was criticised by Marx in his work The Poverty of Philosophy. Answer to the 'Philosophy of Poverty' by M. Proudhon (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 105-212).
  7. ↑ W. Eichhoff, Die Internationale Arbeiterassociation. Ihre Gründung, Organisation, politisch sociale Thätigkeit und Ausbreitung.
  8. ↑ Engels' mother wrote on 2 September 1868 to tell him that she had arrived in Ostend the day before. Engels joined her for about 10 days there. En route he met Marx in London.
  9. ↑ The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 in connection with the centenary of Friedrich Schiller's birth, was conceived as a cultural and social centre of the city's German colony. At first Engels was critical of a society notorious for its tendency towards formalism and pedantry, and he kept aloof from it. But after certain amendments had been made to its Rules, he became a member of its Directorate in 1864, and later its President, devoting much time to it and exercising a considerable influence on its activities. In 1867-68, Engels was particularly occupied with its affairs since a new building was under construction. While Engels was away from Manchester in 1868, the Directorate invited Karl Vogt, who was connected with Bonapartist circles and had been casting aspersions on the proletarian revolutionaries, to give a lecture at the society. In view of this Engels decided that his political reputation would be compromised if he remained President (see this volume, p. 100 and present edition, Vol. 21, p. 18). On 2 October the secretary Davisson approached Engels on behalf of the Directorate asking him to reconsider his decision, but Engels refused. In April 1870 he was again elected member of the Directorate, but did not take an active part in its work.
  10. ↑ F. Engels, 'To the Directorate of the Schiller Institute'.