Letter to Nikolai Danielson, July 4, 1889

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 4 July 1889


First published in: Minuvshiye gody, No. 2, 1908
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO NIKOLAI DANIELSON[1]

IN ST PETERSBURG

London, 4 July 1889

My dear Sir,

I communicated to Mr Lafargue and to Mr Kautsky[2] what you were kind enough to say as to their articles published in the Northern Review. Mr Lafargue, in consequence of this, has sent me an article on the Evolution of Property[3] which he wishes me to forward to you and to request you to be good enough to offer it to the Editor of the Northern Review" on the usual terms as to honorarium etc. I forward it to you today by Book Post, registered.

The news you are enabled to give us about the state of Mr M[utual]'s[4] health are very cheering, and in full agreement with what we heard from other sources.[5] A man with such a tremendous constitution is sure to pull through and one fine morning we may hope to see him here again restored to full youthful health.

The third volume[6] has lain fallow for the last three months in consequence of various unavoidable circumstances, and as the summer season is always a very idle time, I am afraid I shall not be able to do much at it before September or October. The section on Banks and Credit offers considerable difficulties. The leading principles are announced clearly enough, but the whole context is such that it presupposes the reader to be well acquainted with the chief works of literature on the subject such as Tooke[7] and Fullerton,[8] and as this is not the case generally, it will require a deal of explanatory notes, etc.

By the way I have a second copy of Fullerton's Regulation of Currencies, the chief work on the question; if you have not got the book I shall be most happy if you will allow me to send it to you.

The last section 'on rent of land' will, as far as I recollect, require but formal revision, so that, the Bank and Credit section once finished (it is 1/3 of the whole), the last third (Rent, and the different classes of revenue) will not take long. But as this crowning volume is such a splendid and totally unanswerable work, I consider myself bound to bring it out in a shape in which the whole line of argument stands forth clearly and in bold relief. And with the state of this Ms.—a mere first sketch, often interrupted, and left incomplete—that is not so very easy.

I am trying to make arrangements to have two competent gentlemen[9] to copy out for me the elements of the fourth volume from the Ms. which my eyes will hardly allow me to dictate. If I succeed in this, I shall also have trained them to the deciphering of these manuscripts which at present are a sealed book to everyone except myself who am used to the handwriting and abbreviations, and thus the author's[10] other manuscripts will remain available, quite independent of my life and death. I expect that these arrangements too may be concluded this next autumn.

Yours very faithfully

P. W. Rosher[11]

The English translator of the greater part of Volume I Mr Moore has just left for Africa, having been appointed Chief Justice of the Territories of the Niger Company. Thus the 3rd volume will be translated, in part at least, at the banks of the Niger!

  1. ↑ An excerpt of this letter was first published in the language of the original (English) in the book: K. Marx, E Engels, Letters on 'Capital', London, 1983.
  2. ↑ The whereabouts of these letters of Engels is not known.
  3. ↑ Nikolai Danielson must have referred to articles by P. Lafargue and K. Kautsky published in 1889 in the Russian journal Northern Review.
  4. ↑ Hermann Lopatin
  5. ↑ On 27 March (8 April) 1889, Nikolai Danielson informed Engels that Hermann Lopatin, gravely ill a few months before, had made a recovery and was in good health at the moment.
  6. ↑ of Capital
  7. ↑ T. Tooke, An Inquiry into the Currency Principle: the Connection of the Currency with Prices, and the Expediency of a Separation of Issue from Banking
  8. ↑ J. Fullerton, On the Regulation of Currencies; Being an Examination of the Principles, on which it is Proposed to Restrict, within Certain Fixed Limits, the Future Issues on Credit of the Bank of England, and of the Other Banking Establishments Throughout the Country
  9. ↑ Kautsky and Bernstein
  10. ↑ Marx
  11. ↑ This is the pseudonym Engels used in his correspondence with Nikolai Danielson. Percy White Rosher was the name of the husband of the niece of Engels's wife.