Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 11, 1876

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 11 December 1876


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart 1913
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN LONDON

[London,] 11 December 1876

DEAR FRED,

Kovalevsky came to see me yesterday, asked for the Hanssen[2] ; told him he should have it tomorrow evening; at the same time agreed that he and I should call on you that same evening (Tuesday).

I am sending you the Hanssen which, as I did, you will polish off with ease in a couple of hours.

Written about book-binding.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

After the conference (St. James)[3] Mr Gladstone entered the gallery where Madame Novikov was sitting, offered her his arm—pour montrer[4] (or so he said according to Novikov's account) que l'alliance entre l'Angleterre et la Russie existe déjà[5] —and, with her on his arm, strutted through the vast throng which made way on both sides; he a relatively small, skinny chap, she a veritable dragoon. She remarked to Kovalevsky: que ces Anglais sont gauches![6]

Generalissimus Chernyayev had twice asked Novikov by telegraph whether he should also appear at the conference; she had to tell him that Mr Gladstone would be pleased to see him personally but thought a public appearance inexpedient.

At the conference (admission by TICKET) Harrison (who, in his article 'Cross and Crescent' in the Fortnightly,[7] makes great play with a few HINTS recently picked up from Kovalevsky) told Howell to his face that all the workers present without exception belonged to a paid band well known to him (Harrison).

Unfortunately Charles Darwin also lent his name to the rotten demonstration; Lewes refused to do so.

  1. ↑ An extract from this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx, On History and People. Arranged and edited, with an introduction and new translations, by Saul K. Padover, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, [1977].
  2. ↑ The Crimean War (1853-56), or the Eastern war, was waged by Russia against the allied forces of Britain, France, the Kingdom of Piedmont and Turkey for supremacy in the Levant. It ended in Russia's defeat and the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty in 1856. In acoordance with this treaty, Russia renounced its claims to the 'protection' of the Christian subjects of the Turkish Empire, agreed to the neutralisation of the Black Sea and was forbidden to have military bases and warships there, and recognised the collective protectorate of the great powers over Serbia, Moldavia and Wallachia, which remained under the Sultan's sovereignty. Russia also pledged not to erect fortifications on the Aland Islands.
  3. ↑ On 8 December 1876, St James' Hall in London was the venue for the national conference on the Eastern Question. Its chief organisers came from the Liberal Party.
  4. ↑ to show
  5. ↑ that the alliance between England and Russia already exists
  6. ↑ How gauche these English are!
  7. ↑ The Fortnightly Review, Vol. XX, London, 1 July 1 December 1876.