Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, January 7, 1875

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 7 January 1875


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1939
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN LEIPZIG

[London,] 7 January 1875

Dear Liebknecht,

Happy New Year! Tomorrow or the day after I shall send you the epilogue and list of printer's errors.[1]

Owing to lack of time I have not, for the most part, read the explanations of terms. Only one thing struck me: 'fleurs de lys', mentioned in connection with Fleury, are what the brand-marks were called that were imprinted on felons during the ancien régime in France.[2]

The essay on the banking system is downright bad.[3] Kirchmann's stuff, too, would have been better left out of the Volksstaat.[4]

With kindest regards to all your family.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ The reference is to the reprint of Marx's Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne (see present edition, Vol. 11) in Der Volksstaat (28 October- 18 December 1874) (see also Note 137). It was the first time that Marx was named the author of this work.
    The epilogue, written for the Revelations and dated 'London, 8 January 1875', was printed in Der Volkstaat, No. 10, 27 January 1875 (see present edition, Vol. 24). In the first half of 1875, a separate edition of the work (based on the publication in Der Volksstaat) appeared in Leipzig.
  2. ↑ An incorrect explanation of the French term (Fleurs de lys, Lilies—the symbol of legitimist monarchy) was given in an editorial footnote to Chapter IV of Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne printed by Der Volksstaat, No. 140, 2 December 1874. After Marx's intervention, the error was set right in the supplement to Revelations published in Der Volksstaat, No. 7, 20 January 1875 (see also present edition. Vol. 11, p. 442).
  3. ↑ 'Der Bankgesetz-Entwurf, Der Volksstaat, Nos. 140 and 141, 2 and 4 December 1874; 'Die Reichsbank oder die Association des Reiches mit dem Kapital', Der Volksstaat, No. 146, 16 December 1874 (both essays were published under the correspondent's sign K-Z).
  4. ↑ See the article 'Kulturkampf und Parlamentarismus' (Der Volksstaat, No. 149, 23 December 1874), where J. H. Kirchmann's pamphlet, Ueber Parlamentarische Debatten, was discussed.