Letter to Karl Höchberg, August 26, 1879

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 26 August 1879


First published in Russian in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1929
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO KARL HÖCHBERG

IN SCHEVENINGEN510

Eastbourne, 26 August 1879

Dear Mr Höchberg,

As I do not know how long you will be staying in Scheveningen, I hasten to advise you in reply that you have been misled in regard to the information allegedly given us by C. Hirsch. He did not assure us that the new newspaper was to be 'your private property', or that it was to 'adopt a moderate attitude'.[1] Our view of the affair is based, not upon Hirsch's assurances, but upon our appraisal of all the relevant correspondence conducted between Leipzig and Zurich on the one hand and C. Hirsch on the other. I must refrain from going into the whole comedy of errors these letters represent, and in which nobody has been more blameless than Hirsch. In my view his conduct in the whole affair has been perfectly rational, frank and honourable. Hence I must wholeheartedly approve of his decision to refuse the editorship on the terms mooted which have not yet even been settled between the interested parties in Leipzig and Zurich, and at this juncture my only concern is to deflect from him a reproach he does not deserve.

With Social-Democratic greetings,

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

Back in London as from day after tomorrow 496

  1. ↑ In his letter of 24 August Karl Höchberg wrote that, as far as he was informed, Engels had refused to contribute to Der Sozialdemokrat because of Carl Hirsch's unfavourable reports. On the real reasons why Marx and Engels refused to contribute to the paper, see this volume, pp. 412-13.