Letter to Friedrich Engels, September 4, 1882

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 4 September 1882


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46, printed according to the original


MARX TO ENGELS

IN LONDON

[Postcard, unsigned]

Vevey, 4 September 1882
Hôtel du Léman

DEAR FRED,

Laura will be writing to you at length about events, or rather the uneventfulness here, since we are living in the Land of Cockaigne.[1]

Like others, we have been for TRIPS on the LAKE.

On 3 1ST August I got Jennychen's letter enclosing your letter[2]

and the CHEQJJE which last I handed in at the local bank of Genton et Co. for encaissement[3] in Paris.

On 31 August, 1ST, 2ND and 3RD SEPTEMBER marvellous weather (too hot yesterday). Today wet and stormy; hope it won't degenerate into general rain. Odd that I should still be coughing; I think I'm the only person in Vevey who coughs; at all events I haven't met anyone else who does. My GENERAL STATE, however, is most satisfactory; with Laura I climbed not only to the top of the local vineyard, but also to the top of the much higher vineyard at Montreux, without feeling the slight- est discomfort.

I was called on at our hotel by a M R Songeon, président du conseil mu- nicipal de Paris[4] ; is one of the réfugiés[5] whom I knew in London in 1849-1850. He presented me with the official report made to the conseil municipal of Paris by the deputation (amongst whom Mr Songeon) it had sent to Rome for Garibaldi's apotheosis[6] ; the thing is mainly concerned with 'Songeon's' own apotheosis, since he always acted as spokesman for the other French delegates. Also showed me a copy of Capital which is to accompany him to the sylvan retreat not far removed from here, whither he was wending his way.

So far the English haven't made such rapid progress in Egypt 5 5 as Wolseley 'prognosticated'.

Mr Virchow, or so I see from the supplément to yesterday's Journal de Genève, has again demonstrated that he is far and away above

Darwin, he alone, in fact, being scientific and hence also 'contemp- tuous' of organic chemistry.

[On the side reserved for the address]

Fr. Engels,, Esq.

122 Regent's Park Road,
London, N. W., Angleterre

  1. ↑ On 25 (13) December 1877 the Russian army embarked on the decisive offensive on the Balkan theatre of war. Having crossed the Balkans, Russian troops entered Sofia on 4 January 1878 (23 December 1877), smashed the last Turkish army in the battle of Philippopol (Plovdiv) on 15-17 (3-5) January 1878, and entered Adrianople (Edirne) on 20 (8) January and continued their advance towards Constantinople (Istanbul). On 31 (19) January, Turkey was compelled to sign an armistice in Adrianople.
  2. ↑ A reference to the Adzhars' guerrilla warfare in the rear of the Russian army in the Caucasus, which held back its advance in that theatre of war.
  3. ↑ collection
  4. ↑ Chairman of the Municipal Council of Paris
  5. ↑ refugees
  6. ↑ The Grand Cophta—the name of an omnipotent and omniscient priest who headed the non-existent Masonic 'Egyptian Lodge' which the famous eigh teenth-century impostor 'Count' Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo) claimed to have founded.