Letter to Friedrich Engels, March 2, 1869

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	2 March 1869

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

MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 2 March 1869

DEAR FRED,

You must either send me the booklet from Lugau—or, better still, send me in German the paragraphs of the rules that you quote.^[1]

I shall translate the stuff myself, since I do not regard Wilhelm^[2] as competent and also because I do not wish to hand over the affair to him alone.^[3]

Your

K. M.

A p r o p o s. A PAMPHLET, WRITTEN BY A PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT, ADDRESSED TO M R G l a d s t o n e^[4] states that at least 1/10 of the LIFE ASSURANCE CO'S (the whole BUSINESS IN LIFE ASSURANCE has a nominal capital of £100 million) is bankrupt and is NOT WORTH THE PAPER UPON WHICH THEY PRINT THEIR ADVERTISEMENTS.

What will the bourgeois gentlemen say to this, those gentlemen who were so very very delighted about the PROSPECTIVE BANKRUPTCY (in 20 years or so) of the TRADES UNIONS?

They will keep their mouths shut.

↑ Engels wrote the 'Report on the Miners' Guilds in the Coalfields of Saxony' (see present edition, Vol. 21) at Marx's request on the basis of material sent in by the Saxon miners from Lugau, Nieder-Würschnitz and Oelsnitz, who informed the General Council and Marx personally of their wish to join the International (see Note 241). The report, which Engels had written in English, was read at the General Council meeting of 23 February 1869. An abridged version appeared in The Bee-Hive, No. 385, 27 February 1869. Other English newspapers, including The Times, The Daily News and The Morning Advertiser, refused to carry the report. In early March 1869 Marx himself translated it into German, and it was published in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 33, 17 March, Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 12 (supplement), 20 March, and Die Zukunft, nos. 67 and 68, 20 and 21 March 1869.
↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht
↑ See this volume, pp. 220 21.
↑ An Actuary. Life Assurance Companies: their Financial Condition. Discussed, with Reference to Impending Legislation, in a Letter Addressed to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M. P., First Lord of the Treasury, p. 6.

[1] Engels wrote the 'Report on the Miners' Guilds in the Coalfields of Saxony' (see present edition, Vol. 21) at Marx's request on the basis of material sent in by the Saxon miners from Lugau, Nieder-Würschnitz and Oelsnitz, who informed the General Council and Marx personally of their wish to join the International (see Note 241). The report, which Engels had written in English, was read at the General Council meeting of 23 February 1869. An abridged version appeared in The Bee-Hive, No. 385, 27 February 1869. Other English newspapers, including The Times, The Daily News and The Morning Advertiser, refused to carry the report. In early March 1869 Marx himself translated it into German, and it was published in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 33, 17 March, Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 12 (supplement), 20 March, and Die Zukunft, nos. 67 and 68, 20 and 21 March 1869.

[2] Wilhelm Liebknecht

[3] See this volume, pp. 220 21.

[4] An Actuary. Life Assurance Companies: their Financial Condition. Discussed, with Reference to Impending Legislation, in a Letter Addressed to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M. P., First Lord of the Treasury, p. 6.

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