Letter to Friedrich Engels, May 10, 1870

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 10 May 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 in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 10 May 1870

DEAR FRED,

Yesterday I received the enclosed screed from Wilhelm.[2] An incorrigible South German bumpkin.

You will see from it, d'abord, that the blockhead never wrote to Meissner[3] and attended to all my commissions in the same way. And, for precisely this reason, I should now write to him 'regularly', and you should go to 'Stuttgart', in the same way as he wished to propose you as a MEMBER of the North German Reichstag[4] !

I had written to him[5] that if, when he wrote about Hegel, he knew nothing better than to repeat the old Rotteck-Welcker muck, then he would do better to keep his mouth shut.[6] He says that this would be 'making rather informally short work, etc' of Hegel, and when he writes stupidities beneath Engels' articles, then 'Engels can of course (!) say something at greater length (!!)'. The fellow really is too stupid.

The circular,[7] which reached him in such a romantic manner, states that the General Council reserves the right to speak about Schweitzer, etc., publicly as soon as it considers suitable. This Wilhelm converts into us wanting to make a 'public declaration'— for Wilhelm!

With regard to the next congress, what do you think of Bebel's suggestion about Mainz or Mannheim[8] ? Better Mainz. The business would be a good thing, insofar as Mr Bakunin et Co. would be totally powerless in Germany.

Shameless Wilhelm, who thought my Bonaparte[9] scarcely worth a note in his sheet[10] , demands my permission to publish my articles on the French Revolution[11] !

From the Marseillaise of last Sunday[12] you will see that Opinion nationale, the Plon-Plon[13] sheet, has discovered that the French original of our declaration,[14] written by me, was certainly written in Paris! Incidentally, I am pleased that this sheet is finally abandoning the patronage it has hitherto granted us, which we found very distasteful.

The ancient Irish business with women quite pales compared to what the Celts in WALES allowed themselves in that field. This was (up until the 11th-12th century) quite Fourier's fantasy mise en pratique[15] .

For my birthday, Kugelmann sent me two pieces of wallpaper from Leibniz's study, which amused me very much. It appears Leibniz's home was pulled down last winter, and the stupid Hanoverians—who could have made good business in London with the relics—threw everything away. Each of these two pieces depicts something mythological, one Neptune in his waves, etc., the other Venus, Amor, etc., all in poor Louis XIV style. On the other hand the quality (solidity) of the hand manufactory of those days compares well with today's. I have hung the two pieces up in my study. You KNOW MY ADMIRATION FOR Leibniz.

I am still suffering so much from the nose stoppage resulting from my last visit to Borkheim that my daughters have forbidden me to go to the GENERAL COUNCIL this evening, and threaten, if I disobey, to send to FRED Engels A SAVAGE DENUNCIATION OF MY CONDUCT. My presence there is really very necessary just now. Enfin, nous verrons![16]

Apropos. I recently purchased a 14-volume edition of Swift (of 1760) for all of 4½ shillings. So, as soon as you need to look at Swift's things about Irish subjects, the necessary will be sent to you.

Has not the time nearly come for us to look around for a house for you here, and for you to give instructions IN THAT LINE?

Salut.

Your

K. M.

The elections in France—so far as they make sense—have produced a grand result. A great and ever repeated tomfoolery of the Republicans to persuade the poor devils of soldiers to vote 'no'. A quoi bon?[17] That the government should repeat the old trick, get to know and to root out the unreliable elements. Very soon, the 4,000 military NO VOTERS of Paris will have vanished, partly to Algeria, partly to distant provincial punitive garrisons.

  1. ↑ A short excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in: The Letters of Karl Marx. Selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht
  3. ↑ See this volume, p. 428.
  4. ↑ Marx gives Engels an account of Liebknecht's letter of 7 May 1870, in which Liebknecht invited Engels, through Marx, to the Stuttgart Congress of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party scheduled for 4-7 June 1870.
  5. ↑ This letter, written after 7 May 1870, has not been found.
  6. ↑ Ibid., p. 509.
  7. ↑ K. Marx, Confidential Communication.
  8. ↑ A reference to a suggestion by Bebel and Liebknecht that the annual congress of the International Working Men's Association should be held in 1870 in Germany, either in Mainz or Mannheim. Liebknecht wrote to Marx about this on 7 May 1870. On 9 May, the Brunswick Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party sent the General Council an official proposal to hold the congress in Germany.
  9. ↑ K. Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
  10. ↑ Der Volksstaat
  11. ↑ K. Marx, The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850.
  12. ↑ Marx refers to Une Dénonciation, written by A. de Fonvielle and published in La Marseillaise, No. 139, 8 May 1870.
  13. ↑ Jerome Charles Paul Bonaparte
  14. ↑ K. Marx, Concerning the Persecution of the Members of the French Sections. Declaration of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association.
  15. ↑ put into practice
  16. ↑ Well, we shall see!
  17. ↑ Who profits?