Letter to Friedrich Engels, April 19, 1870

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 19 April 1870


First published 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


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 19 April 1870

IN ALL HASTE

DEAR FRED,

I am sending you 2 PARLIAMENTARIES ON IRELAND, and the latest Egalité, ditto La Solidarité. From the enclosed letter from Perret,[1] ex-secretary of the Federal Comité in Geneva—which I must have back by Friday—you will see how the Muscovite beast[2] is acting. He was naturally forced to appeal also—which he did—to the CENTRAL COUNCIL[3] through his secretaire général Robert. I also enclose this letter.[4] What do you think we should do about these fellows?

MR WILLIAMS SENDS YOU HIS COMPLIMENTS. ONE OF HIS ARTICLES HE HAD SENT TO Reynolds's. HE WENT TO TOWN TO FIND ANOTHER COPY FOR YOU, BUT IT WAS NOT TO BE GOT. TWO further ARTICLES[5] together with OTHER Marseillaises HE SHALL FORWARD YOU THIS WEEK.

My wife took the £5 to Dupont this morning. BEST THANKS FOR IT. HIS WIFE IS DYING IN THE HOSPITAL.

I have visited Schapper. Bad inflammation of the lungs, very emaciated, but perhaps he can still be saved.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

We shall put a spoke in Bakunin's wheel in the Marseillaise through Flourens, who has seen through the 'FRENCH BRANCH' 7 2 and annexed himself to us. HE IS A MAN OF VERY GREAT RESOLUTION. LEARNED. TOO SANGUINE.

  1. ↑ Marx sent Engels Perret's letter to Jung of 15 April 1870, in which Perret described in detail the split that occurred at the Chaux-de-Fonds Congress (see Note 606) and the Bakuninists' intrigues in the Swiss sections of the International.
  2. ↑ Mikhail Bakunin
  3. ↑ Marx is referring to the General Council of the First International which, up to the end of 1866, was usually referred to as the Central Council.
  4. ↑ On 7 April 1870, the Federal Committee newly established by the Bakuninists (at the Chaux-de-Fonds Congress; see Note 606), which had its headquarters at Chaux-de-Fonds, directed a letter to the General Council requesting it to settle the conflict between itself and the Romance Federal Council. The letter, which was signed by the Federal Committee Secretary F. Robert, also informed the General Council about the establishment of a new La Solidarité newspaper by the Bakuninists.
  5. ↑ the sixth and seventh articles by Jenny Marx from the Irish question series