Letter to Karl Marx, March 27, 1870

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 27 March 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
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 27 March[1] 1870

Dear Moor,

If you did not understand my few lines of the day before yesterday, then the enclosure must have been missing. You wrote on the 24th that you would take steps as soon as you had in your hands completely striking certain proof that our letters had been opened. The envelope of this letter was the most striking proof: the sealing-wax had been loosened with a hot iron and afterwards spread just as sloppily back on the envelope, so that every trace of the imprint was blotted out, and the unfastened flaps were not even properly covered again. So I immediately sent you this envelope, wishing thus to put you in a position to take immediate steps. If it was not enclosed, it had been taken out. But if it was in the same state in which you dispatched it, then you obviously need not put any sealing-wax on the letters, and might just as well send them completely open. Since this case interests me, please tell me how things stand.

Luckily, I have money at home, and I send you enclosed £5, S/7, 29,808, Manchester, 16 January 1869, BANK OF ENGLAND NOTE. Unfortunately, because of Sunday I cannot register the letter; the rogues who open our letters are equally capable of stealing the money. I wanted to get the rest yesterday, but the bank closes so early on Saturday that I wouldn't have got into town in time. I'll get it tomorrow.

I don't remember seeing the Queen's Messenger with Clanricarde's biography.[2] As far as I know, I sent back to you all the Queen's Messengers, etc., which you did not take with you personally, in the parcel with the Cloches and Lanternes; but I'll take another look.

Mr Philipp von Roesgen von Floss has also spread himself in the Werker several times; the really Dutch, precise handwriting suggests a come-down notary's clerk. Caution is suggested before he be granted the personeel diploma as lid[3] of the Internationale.

If your friend Collet only knew that you also have now become a bona fide and frank RUSSIAN AGENT.[4] But it's really quite nice of the fellows, who certainly seem to be a different sort of Russians from those we have previously encountered. They can be left with their project of playing patron to the other Slavs until a firm footing has been gained in Austria and Hungary, and then this will cease of itself. They also have a good picture of the Servian Omladina; it is a sort of student society with tendencies about as clear as those of the old Burschenschaft.[5]

The explanation about Bakunin very good.[6] Thus he is also rendered harmless, since the Russian paymasters will not permit him to go further than Herzen.

You must be having worse weather than us; here it's fairly cold, and the wind veers between northwest and east, but otherwise it's mostly fine, and I can take a decent walk every day. But 8 days ago, when it was once warm, I got a frightful grippe, which I drove out with 3 days of linseed tea.

I shall send you back the Dutch and Russian letters with the second post, so you'll get them tomorrow afternoon.

I have been looking through our correspondence of last year, and have discovered that roughly from July-August onwards your letters first individually, and later all without exception, show more or less clear signs of MANIPULATION. The one I received this morning was, if it had been opened, at least decently closed. Best greetings.[7]

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ In the original: 29 March.
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 466.
  3. ↑ member
  4. ↑ See this volume, pp. 462-63, 464-65.
  5. ↑ Omladina (i.e., the Association of Serb Youth), a political organisation of Serb liberal bourgeoisie which existed in 1866-72 in the town of Novi Sad which used to belong to Austria-Hungary. Its stated goal was promotion of culture and education, but it really campaigned for political unification of all Serb territories. The democratic wing headed by S. Markovic opposed the liberal trend prevailing in the Omladina, which tended to ignore the class aspect of this issue. The organisation was disbanded because of internal strife. Burschenschaften—German student organisations which at the time of the liberation war against Napoleonic France championed Germany's unification. Alongside with progressive ideas, the Burschenschaften advocated nationalism.
  6. ↑ Ibid., pp. 462-63.
  7. ↑ I would ask you to greet Madame la comtesse from me, and thank her for the friendly lines she wrote me. She has not the slightest reason to regret preferring Latin to French. This not only displays a classical and highly-developed taste, but also explains why Madame is never non-plussed.