Letter to Hermann Schluter, August 20, 1886

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 August 1886


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO HERMANN SCHLÜTER

IN HOTTINGEN-ZURICH

Eastbourne, 20 August 1886
4 Cavendish Place

Dear Mr Schlüter,

Now it's your turn at last. I had to give up writing letters until the English ms.[1] had been finished.

Firstly, therefore, your letter of 10 March.

1) Funds received at last. Receipt made out in duplicate.[2]

2) Have read Lexis.[3] The man is far from stupid, but he's an out- and-out rascal and knows it.

3) The Origin[4] —Dietz's way of going about things gave me fresh proof of how arbitrarily he behaves in business matters and I shall be guided by this in future dealings with him. Apart from that, the outcome has been satisfactory and has enabled the thing to reappear in the bookshops.[5]

4) General Council's Addresses. Whether I have them all I shall only know when my friends give me sufficient time to put Marx's letters, etc., in order. So until then I shan't be able to help you.[6]

5) Chartist ms.[7] will be finished as soon as I get back to London after the 28th.[8] I shall probably have a chance to consult our old friend Harney about doubtful points; he is sure to be in London now. The article in the Rheinische Jahrbücher is by Weerth and you may name him.[9]

Postcard of 8/6.— You might send me the letters from the late Heß' papers when convenient, though they're unlikely to amount to more than tittle-tattle. After 1848 the good Moses ceased to be connected with any real movement and merely did a bit of Lassalling for a time under Schweitzer.

Letter 16/8.— I shall be glad to look over The Housing Question; the thing can be reprinted pretty well as it stands (so far as I am able to judge from memory). A word or two will be necessary by way of introduction.[10]

A re-issue of the Mordspatrioten would certainly be a very good idea. The thing is by Borkheim and I would write a short biographical note[11] to go with it. But as I have only one copy, likewise of The Housing Question, and as both of them will probably call for notes, I should be grateful if you would send me one copy of each (to London).

Would you kindly give the enclosed line to Ede.

Yours,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ of the first volume of Capital (see Note 56)
  2. ↑ In his letter of 17 March 1883, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, on behalf of the Dutch Socialist Workers' Party, asked Engels to 'pass on our homage and grateful acknowledgement, to the Marx family and to all those who join us in mourning at the grave of the master'. Nieuwenhuis also informed Engels that he planned to translate his work Socialism: Utopian and Scientific into Dutch, which he actually did in 1886. Nieuwenhuis further enquired about Engels' plan with regard to Volume II of Marx's Capital, further study of the English labour movement after 1845 and the reissue of Engels' The Condition of the Working-Class in England.
  3. ↑ W. Lexis, 'Die Marx'sche Kapitaltheorie', Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Vol. 11, Jena, 1885.
  4. ↑ F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
  5. ↑ On 10 March 1886 Schlüter informed Engels that Dietz had received 1,000 copies of his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State from the Social-Democratic publishing house in Zurich and provided them with a new title page for sale as the second edition in Germany.
  6. ↑ Engels is evidently referring to the General Council reports which Schlüter planned to publish as a separate volume (see Note 556).
  7. ↑ On 10 March 1886 Hermann Schlüter informed Engels that he intended to publish as a separate pamphlet a speech by the Reverend Joseph Stephens, one of the leaders of the Chartist movement, which had been printed in Georg Weerth's article 'Joseph Rayner Stephens, Prediger zu Staleybridge, und die Bewegung der englischen Arbeiter im Jahre 1839' contained in Rheinische Jahrbücher zur gesellschaftlichen Reform, Herausgegeben unter Mitwirkung Webserer von Hermann Püttmann, Vol. II, Belle-Vue, near Constanz, 1846. Schlüter asked Engels to look through the introduction he had written for this publication. He later changed his plans and published the manuscript anonymously after Engels had looked through it under the title Die Chartistenbewegung in England, Hottingen-Zürich, 1887 (see also Note 453).
  8. ↑ Engels was on holiday in Eastbourne from 7 August to 4 September 1886.
  9. ↑ G. W[eerth], 'Joseph Rayner Stephens...', Rheinische Jahrbücher zur gesellschaftlichen Reform, Vol. II, 1846.
  10. ↑ F. Engels, 'Preface to the Second Edition of The Housing Question.
  11. ↑ F. Engels, 'Introduction to Sigismund Borkheim's Pamphlet In Memory of the German Blood-and-Thunder Patriots. 1806-1807.