Letter to Karl Marx, January 9, 1870

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 9 January 1870


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 for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 9 January 1870

Dear Moor,

A Happy New Year! I arrived back here at midday on Thursday, after thoroughly wrecking my stomach in Barmen with innumerable guzzlings.[1]

The people there are overjoyed, that is, the philistines are. The danger of war has now been finally overcome; Louis-Napoleon has once again finely maintained his superior wisdom through prudent compliance.[2] Bismarck is once again able to work, confidence is returning, COMMERCE must improve, and so 1870 must be an extremely blessed year for the honest German duffers. I cannot grasp how these people manage to take leave of more of their senses every year.

Hühnerbein, the old tailor and general of the revolution, was very pleased to see me. He still has a complete set of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung bound in red, which is good to know. He sends greetings; he has two very pretty daughters.

I did not go to Solingen[3] for the following reasons:

1. It would have been very difficult for me to get away for a day at HOLIDAY time;

2. I could not very well have asked for a closer look at the business without contributing a larger sum myself, which was not possible and

3. as a Party friend, I would have been forced to take the people's word for some things, and not to have insisted so strictly, like a complete stranger, on the presentation of all documents and SECURITIES; and Menke, as a result of my report, would perhaps refrain from sending anyone, and thus load me with a responsibil- ity I would prefer to decline.

Now I shall wait for your reply and then wiite to the people.[4]

If I hadn't been so wrecked and, in addition, worried about Lizzie, whom I left unwell, and from whom I heard nothing all the time, I would have dropped in on you on the return journey.

Read practically no newspapers the whole time, but I see that the Hatzfeldt, through Mende, has laid an interdict on Schweitzer[5] ; things must be all over for Schweitzer soon. I shall presumably get details through you from the papers.

In Cologne I visited Klein[6] for a few moments. Was very cool; these people become so philistinised that we appear to really bother them. They now have an anti-ultramontane association, naturally including Cherethites and Pelethites[7] (which means Cretans and Philistines according to Ewald's translation).

Best greetings.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ Engels left for Barmen to visit his mother in late December 1869, and returned to Manchester on 6 January, 1870.
  2. ↑ Apparently a reference to Ollivier's liberal ministry's assuming office in France on 2 January 1870. In Germany, this event was regarded as a step towards normalising relations between France and the North German Confederation.
  3. ↑ See this volume, p. 401.
  4. ↑ Ibid., pp. 420-21.
  5. ↑ Engels refers to Fritz Mende's book Herr J. B. von Schweitzer und die Organisation des Lassalle'schen Allgemeinen] deutschen Arbeitervereins, Leipzig, 1869. Mende headed a small group of Lassalleans who had split off from the General Association of German Workers (see Note 104) under the influence of Sophie von Hatzfeldt and formed the Lassallean General Association of German Workers in 1867. In 1872, it virtually ceased to exist.
  6. ↑ Johann Jacob Klein
  7. ↑ 2 Samuel 8:18; 15:8