| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 28 March 1874 |
MARX TO GEORGE MOORE
IN LONDON
[Draft]
[London,] 28 March 1874
To Mr G. Moore
Your yesterday's letter contains assertions which rest partly upon a misstatement and partly upon an erroneous interpretation of facts.
Firstly. Your misstatement of facts. In the first statement of my solicitors in the hands of Mr Harrison at the time of his arbitration I declared not only that I had received the money collected from The Engineer and The Farmer (but of no other 'etc. ' which figures in your letter) but that I had spent it (and something more) in paying Messrs Longuet and Griset.[1] On the first day of our examination I handed over the respective receipts to Mr Harrison in proof of my declaration.
Mr Shaen having said in his counter-statement that I was not appointed liquidator of the concern, I replied that being the only creditor of the concern, I had a perfect right to act as my own liquidator. This declaration of mine is also contained in my written answer to Shaen's counter-statement, which I handed over to Mr Harrison, on the second day of our examination, and which he has now returned to my solicitors. In his award Mr Harrison has literally endorsed my claim by appointing me my own liquidator. Moreover, Le Moussu having further stated in his own oath to Mr Harrison that I had already laid hold on the machines,—which was not literally exact, but true in that sense that you held then the machines for me—I denied in no way his statement.
There was, therefore, on my part, no concealment of facts.
Secondly. Your erroneous interpretation of facts. In order to prove Le Moussu's mendacity in which he had the boldness to persist when being on oath before Mr Harrison, I proved that the money was not collected by him, that the money [was] collected in my name, [that] on the contrary the invoices were made out by you, handed over by you to Longuet, [and the money was] collected by him in the name of the firm, and that my very name was not mentioned in Mercurer. This transaction...[2] The judicial proceedings having once begun, I took no step whatever to get at the outstanding debts. You will now have to judge for yourselves whether my proceedings have any analogy with yours. I come now to another point. In your letter you say:
'I have received the money from Dover, the Gardeners' Chronicle and I will send you Collier's Account.'
You do not mention Dickes, but I expect that in your next letter of Monday I shall receive all the details.
In conclusion let me remark that in regard to the legal character of the past proceedings, I have only communicated to you not my own view, which is not yet at all settled, but an opinion provisionally expressed by my solicitors, Mr Merriman and Mr Powell, at the interview I had with them, in presence of another gentleman, on Thursday last.[3]
Yours,
K. Marx