Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, June 22, 1871

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 22 June 1871


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT[1]

IN LEIPZIG

London, 22 June 1871

Dear Liebknecht,

Herewith the translation of Section I of the Address.[2] The rest will follow so quickly that you can print Section I in two successive issues, i.e. you will have more copy in 8 days. On condition

1. that you print quickly and a lot in each issue; 2. that there are no marginal notes; I have translated so as to make them superfluous, apart from innuendos and details which could not in any case be explained in a few words;

3. that the type is left standing for separate publication as a pamphlet, which on this occasion is extremely necessary. If you do not have the money or credit for this, let us know.

Anything you cannot print you should replace with dots and send the relevant part of the manuscript to Becker in Geneva for him to publish it in the Vorbote (mark it clearly so that he can see where such passages fit in).[3]

You will have already received the copy of the original Address which I sent you as a letter with a few lines.[4] More of these are available.

The Address has caused a tremendous hullaballoo here in London. First they tried to ignore it, but it was not possible. On Wednesday the 14th, The Evening Standard published a denuncia- tion, on the 15th The Daily News had an excerpt that then went through most other papers. Then The Echo, Spectator on Saturday, Graphic, Pall Mall Gazette, Telegraph—with leading articles, and that was it. On Monday The Times followed with a really lousy LEADER, then the Standard once more, yesterday The Times again, and the whole of London spoke only of us.[5] All wailing, of course. Tant mieux.[6]

I simply do not understand your scruples about deportation.[7]

In your place I would not give up Hessian citizenship without having a substitute safely in my pocket. You are too timid on this issue. A single great public scandal, which would make it clear to the whole world what a humbug all these imperial laws really are, would put an end to all this nonsense. But if you avoid the scandal which can only redound to the detriment of servile nationalists, instead of provoking it, then the police will obviously do what they like. N.B. all this refers only to the relevant passage in your letter, not the stance adopted by the paper[8] which is extremely courageous, and which we wholeheartedly salute. But do not imagine that the police scum would attempt to do to you what they venture to do to individual workers; they would only dare try it once they had created enough precedents by deporting workers over a period of time.

I did not at all realise that your deportation from Prussia was still in force. It may be that the police maintain this. But I was never able to comprehend why you did not settle the matter while you were still a deputy.

I am unable to correspond for the Volksstaat, but, as you see, I help wherever I can.

Nothing can be done about The Pall Mall Gazette. I have myself had all sorts of conflicts with the paper, even in the case of exclusively military articles, and neither you nor I can get political things accepted. I only keep the contact going TO KEEP A FOOTING THERE, so as to be able to print things there from time to time. If they did accept you as a correspondent, which they will not do, none of your reports would be printed. I even went so far in the New Year as to tell the editor[9] I knew full well that I could only produce military articles for him and not political ones, and said I only did this in the hope that he would publish our factual notices dealing with Party affairs when we thought it necessary. And this is what has happened.

You seem to have a very good idea of Reynolds. The greatest scoundrel in the press here, an arrant coward whenever he is uncertain of success, he has suppressed the entire Address right down to the extract from The Daily News.

The German workers have behaved themselves quite splendidly in this last great crisis, better than anyone else. And Bebel has been an outstanding spokesman on their behalf; his speech on the Commune went through the entire English press and made a great impression here. You should send the Volksstaat to the Pall Mall from time to time; they publish items from it occasionally because the man is afraid of Marx and myself, and because there is another man[10] there who knows German and makes use of such things. Moreover, the paper readily publishes all sorts of curious information that others do not include.

I would be grateful if you could send my copy of the Volksstaat to me here, and not to Manchester any more. Please send me 3-4 copies of the issues with the Address, one for proof-reading, the rest for distribution.

Best regards to you and yours.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, On the Paris Commune, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1971.
  2. ↑ K. Marx, The Civil War in France.
  3. ↑ The German translation of Marx's The Civil War in France was made by Engels and published in Der Volksstaat (Nos. 52-61, 28 June and 1, 5, 8, 12, 16, 19, 22, 26 and 29 July 1871), and, in abridged form, in Der Vorbote in August-October 1871; it also came out as a pamphlet in Leipzig.
  4. ↑ This letter by Engels has not been found.
  5. ↑ No sooner had The Civil War in France been published than numerous hostile comments appeared in the bourgeois press, for example, in The Evening Standard, No. 14623, 14 June 1871 (leader); The Spectator, No. 2242, 17 June 1871, 'The English Communists on Paris'; The Pall Mall Gazette, No. 1979, 17 June 1871, 'The International Working Men's Association' (leader); The Standard, No. 14627, 19 June 1871 (leader); The Times, No. 27093, 19 June 1871 (leader); The Times, No. 27095, 21 June 1871 (leader).
  6. ↑ So much the better.
  7. ↑ Following his expulsion from Prussia in 1865, Liebknecht became a Hessian subject but settled in Saxony. On 24 May 1871 Liebknecht wrote to Engels about his intention to give up Hessian citizenship and apply for Saxonian citizenship because he was in danger of being expelled from Saxony too. In the same letter Liebknecht asked Engels to recommend him as a correspondent for The Pall Mall Gazette; he also suggested that the Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper be used to publish the International's documents.
  8. ↑ Der Volksstaat
  9. ↑ Frederick Greenwood
  10. ↑ Nicolas Léon Thieblin