Marx-Engels Correspondence 1856
Source: MECW Volume 40, p. 43;
First Published: First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K . Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Translated By: Peter and Betty Ross
[London,] 8 May [April in the original] 1856 28 Dean Street, Soho
Dear Frederic,
Received your letter.[55] My pressure upon you in yesterday’s letter explicable d’abord [first of all] by the fact that an earlier parcel of my wife’s did not arrive in Manchester, although sent by post. Secondly, however, you know how a man feels when he’s kept on the hop by piles. And such a man am I.
I am glad to hear that you and Lupus are entirely of my opinion with regard to Miquel’s letter[52] — the attempt to digest this ‘wisdom’ fairly ‘turned my stomach’.
Unless something goes wrong with the pecuniary arrangements I have made, my family will be leaving in 10 to 14 days at the latest. [See this volume, p. 33.] A pity you are so overworked, otherwise we might have done un petit tour [short trip] to Scotland.
1 shall carry out your commissions at the Museum [the British Museum Library] as soon as I go there again.
Enclosed:
2 letters, 1. from Imandt; 2. from Cologne.[56] Would it not be best if I replied to the Cologne people through my wife? There exists some jealousy between Cologne and Düsseldorf as to the leading of the proletarian movement. Besides, I don’t know whether the Cologne people are aware that the Düsseldorfers have completely broken with Lassalle who has fallen into general disrepute among them.
Yesterday the following comical missive arrived from Sheffield:
*Council Hall, Sheffield,
May 6th, ’56.
Doctor
The Sheffield Foreign Affairs Committee[57] instructs me to convey to you an expression of their warm thanks for the great public service you have rendered by your admirable exposé of the Kars Papers published in The People’s Paper [K. Marx, The Fall of Kars.] I have the Honour etc.
Cyples, Secretary.*
That is magnanimous, there being war to the death between The People's Paper and The Free Press, as between Chartism and Urquhartism generally.[42] The great Ironside went one step further and decreed that the ‘thanks of the country’ were due to Dr. M. [Marx] etc. It would have been much better had the chaps sent me the money they made out by reprinting the Palmerston articles under the title Story of the Life etc. (in pamphlet form).[58]
From New York Seiler has sent me — came today — ‘Das Recht deutscher vereinigter Staatenbürger in Europa’ in the Democrat. [New-Yorker Demokrat] Will never be read, not in this world at any rate.
Since handing over your £2 to Pieper I haven’t set eyes on him. Moreover, Jones has sent word that, up till yesterday evening, he had not delivered the work he had accepted for The People's Paper. Nous verrons. [We shall see.] If he wilfully throws away this opportunity as well, let him go to the devil. Now’s his chance, the silly ass.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
Apropos! Have seen Heine’s will[59]! A return to the ‘living God’, and a ‘Recantation before God and man’ if ever he wrote anything ‘immoral’!