Letter to Karl Marx, August 10, 1870

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 10 August 1870


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. IV, 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 44


ENGELS TO MARX

IN RAMSGATE

Manchester, 10 August 1870

Dear Moor,

Today is 10 August. Can the Parisians have forgotten it completely? To judge from this evening's Pall Mall Gazette, it would seem not.[1] The bas empire[2] looks like dissolving in a fart. Badinguet[3] is abdicating from the army and has to hand it over to Bazaine (!!) who is now the best man among those left undefeated. This means in reality that he is abdicating altogether. It seems that people are to have the revolution made very easy for them; everything is falling to pieces entirely of its own accord, as was to be expected. The next few days will surely decide the matter.

I think that without the army the Orleanists are not strong enough to risk a restoration immediately. Since they are now the only possible dynasty left, it is conceivable that they might themselves prefer a republican interregnum again. In that event would the ex-Marseillaise[4] come to power?

I believe that faced with a republic the Prussians would agree to a peace on terms that would be honourable on the whole. It cannot be in their interest to stir up 1793 and 1794 all over again. The whole tenor of the King's[5] speech suggested that they were reckoning with a revolution and were unwilling to let things go to extremes. It is true that, against this, there has been since then the great national mania in Germany and the universal cry for Alsace-Lorraine. Nor can William be relied upon. But for the moment I still believe that they will settle for less. France will doubtless have to cede some territory. And for the élan of 1793 to be reborn, and effectively reborn—that calls for the enemies of 1793 and, as you rightly say, it also calls for somewhat different Frenchmen than those who have just come from the bas empire.

Incidentally, I would surmise that the Prussians have already held discussions with the Orléans.

That Bismarck was in Vienna sounds like a local stock-market rumour to me. There is a lot of that about in Vienna.

What you say about the Russians is my opinion exactly.3 And it won't be long before matters come to a head. I am convinced that in that event Bismarck will arrange things with the French in advance.

On Badinguet's strategy there were articles yesterday (LEADER) and this evening in The Pall Mall Gazette[6] Since then still more follies discovered. The 7th Corps of Félix Douay only left Belfort on 1 August and began a leisurely march towards Altkirch. But now that the line Strasbourg-Nancy is, or is about to be, taken by the Germans near Zabern,[7] the corps will have to be sent to Metz or Chalons via Vesoul and Chaumont. Such a mess is unheard of. It is excellent that it should be the Germans to expose the whole swindle at a stroke!

The letters published in the Temps since Sunday by Captain Jeannerod[8] give the best idea of the conception of the enemy prevailing in the French army. The good man was taken prisoner in Saarbrücken and saw the 8th Corps (our Rhinelanders). The fellow's amazement is enough to make you die laughing. The very first glimpse of the Prussian camp impressed him enormously. Une belle et bonne armée, une nation fortement organisée pour la guerre[9] —that is what he perceives in everything down to the Prussian N.C.O. whose valeur morale is malheureusement digne d'être enviée par nous.1 And he is one of the most intelligent of them and can himself speak good German! He admits, moreover, that the Prussians shoot far better than the French.

The Germans now have 1¼ million men under arms, so that even 100,000-200,000 Italians (=half that number of Frenchmen) make little difference. Austria risks a revolution in Vienna if she makes a move. Russia will doubtless feel SAFE until peace is concluded, or a revolutionary government has been established in Paris which cannot be relied on to enter into any double-dealing. Everyone will take good care not to irritate the enraged German simpleton still further. However, you can see how right I was in my belief that the Prussian military organisation contained tremendous power, a power completely invincible in a national war like this.

Official accounts now refer to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd German army.

I just want to go down to the Schiller Institute[10] to see the latest telegrams. Best greetings to you all.

Your

F. E.

Have still not heard anything about the house. In the circumstances it might perhaps be better not to commit myself for 3½ years. I shall wait another few days before writing to the fellow.[11]

  1. ↑ See previous letter, p. 38.
  2. ↑ Bas (Lower) Empire is the name sometimes given to the Byzantine Empire and also to the late Roman Empire. In a more general sense, the name is applied to any state going through a period of decline and disintegration. Here the Second Empire in France is meant.
  3. ↑ A derisive nickname of Louis Bonaparte (Napoleon III) who, in 1846, fled from prison in Ham in the clothes of a mason by the name of Badinguet.
  4. ↑ Engels alludes to Henri de Rochefort, editor of La Marseillaise, a Left Republican paper. From February 1870, he had been serving a six-month term in the Sainte-Pelagie prison for an article published in the newspaper on 12 January 1870, after the assassination of the journalist Victor Noir by Prince Pierre Bonaparte. La Marseillaise was suppressed from 18 May to 20 July 1870 for its articles directed against the ruling circles of the Second Empire, and on 9 September it ceased publication altogether.
  5. ↑ i.e. William I's
  6. ↑ F. Engels, Notes on the War, V and VI.
  7. ↑ French name: Saverne.
  8. ↑ G. Jeannerod, 'La guerre. Correspondances particulières du Temps, Le Temps, No. 3448, 7 August 1870. See also F. Engels, Notes on the War. — VI.
  9. ↑ 'An excellent army, a nation highly organised for war' & 'moral value' is, 'regrettably, worthy of being envied by us'
  10. ↑ The Schiller Institute, founded in Manchester in November 1859 to coincide with the celebrations of Schiller's centenary, was conceived as a cultural and social centre for the city's German colony. In 1864 Engels became a member of its Directorate and later President of the Institute, devoting much time to it and exercising considerable influence over its activities. In September 1868 while Engels was away from Manchester, the Directorate invited Karl Vogt, who had connections with Bonapartist circles, to give a lecture at the Institute. This caused Engels to resign his positions (see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 18). In April 1870 Engels was again elected a member of the Directorate, but he no longer took an active part in its work.
  11. ↑ Smith (see this volume, p. 19)