Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, May 8, 1861

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 8 May 1861


First published in: F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Bd. III, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1922
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41
Keywords : Letter, Ferdinand Lassalle


MARX TO FERDINAND LASSALLE[1]

IN BERLIN

London, 8 May 1861
9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill

Dear Lazarus,

Post tot discrimina rerum.[2] If anyone is responsible for my silence—during my travels, that is, for here in London I had to spend my first week playing Amphitryon[3] to my cousin from Rotterdam[4]—it is the countess.[5] She had promised that I would find her portrait and a letter from her at Zalt-Bommel. Since neither of these materialised, and since I am a strict observer of the jus vindictae[6] I didn't write either. In addition, my time at Bommel was completely taken up. On the one hand, I had business with my uncle,[7] and on the other, I had to pay court to my cousin.[8] So, YOU SEE, SIR, WRITING WAS OUT OF THE QUESTION. My stay in Trier was useful in as much as my mother destroyed some old I.O.U.s. Incidentally the old woman also intrigued me by her exceedingly subtle esprit and unshakable equanimity.

First, then, to the financial side. Herewith an interim payment of £20. You still have £10 to come. The concatenation of circumstances was as follows: My uncle gave me £150 in cash to pay bills due at the beginning of May. He promised to send a further bill to London a few weeks later. In the meantime, therefore, I borrowed the enclosed £20 from my cousin, ditto some money for the household, and a third amount for the repayment of various small loans in Germany. If, however, you must have the outstanding £10 straight away, let me know at once.

I couldn't go to Manchester as I had originally planned[9] because my cousin from Rotterdam decided to travel to London hard on my heels. The pretext was his interest in discussing politics with me. IN FACE, however, I believe he wanted to make the acquaintance of his various female cousins. I wrote to Engels the day before yesterday about the plans for the newspaper[10] and shall doubtless have an answer from him in a day or so. Conditions in America will probably be such that, even if nothing comes of the newspaper enterprise, I may move to Berlin for a semester or thereabouts, ALWAYS SUPPOSED THAT I GET MY RENATURALISATION. London, I CANT DENY IT, possesses an extraordinary fascination for me, although, to a certain extent, I live a hermit's life in this gigantic place.

Apropos. Blanqui is still in Mazas prison[11] (Paris) where he is being physically maltreated by the gendarmes, etc., on the instructions of the examining magistrate. Taking advantage of the general amnesty, he had travelled from here to Paris—with no plans for conspiracy whatever—as an agent for a businessman. In England, as elsewhere in Europe, the scoundrelly press TRIES TO BURKE THE WHOLE AFFAIR. I have made an appointment for next Saturday with Simon Bernard, who knows more about the matter,[12] and we shall then discuss the subject thoroughly. We intend, possibly in concert with Ernest Jones, to hold a PUBLIC MEETING about this outrage. As soon as I have spoken to Bernard and am better informed I shall send a report to the countess. But I would ask you to see to it at once through one channel or another that an item about this guet-apens[13] appears in the Breslau papers. The German papers reprint one another's stuff, as you know.

To turn from tragedy to tragi-comedy, did you see in the newspapers that workers in Geneva boxed Fazy's ears in broad daylight?

Kossuth's behaviour here during the lawsuit[14] was lamentable. Having at first taken the floor with such swagger in his AFFIDAVITS, etc., he bowed and scraped during the hearing itself, assumed as insignificant and subdued an air as possible, disavowed all revolutionary designs or intentions on his own part and thus stupidly deprived himself of the sympathies of a public predis- posed in favour of such melodramatic characters.

I don't know whether you have followed the parliamentary debates on the MacDonald CASE.[15] Palmerston's provocative behaviour towards Prussia[16] has, in fact, no other aim than to explode the idea (Schleinitz's) of an Anglo-Prussian alliance. I need hardly tell you to what purpose, for you know the story.

Toby Meyen, in a Berlin letter to the Hamburg Freischütz, has produced very curious explanations of my stay in Berlin.[17] D'abord,[18] Countess Hatzfeldt is said to have offered me 20,000 talers to found a newspaper. Secundo, I had imagined that Herr Vogt had won me support among the middle classes, on which score, however, I suffered a bitter disappointment. And, ultimo, I gave the thing up in despair, since 'not one man of letters' wished to have 'anything to do' with me. Good shot, Toby!

Rodbertus's pamphlet[19] is highly commendable as regards its tendency. Otherwise, what is good in it isn't new and what is new in it isn't good. Roscher[20] on the other hand is the true representative of professorial erudition. Fausse science,[21] as Fourier would say.

Don't forget to knock at Brockhaus's door[22]; 10-20 sheets, for I can never estimate the length in advance.

And now, mon cher, I must conclude by most cordially thanking you for the kind and amiable way in which you took me in and entertained me and, more especially, put up with my incivilities. As you know, I was beset by worries and am also troubled with my liver. But the chief thing is that we laughed together a great deal. Simia non ridet[23] and thus we have shown ourselves to be truly consummate Buddhas.

I enclose two small photographs, one for the countess, to whom I would ask you to convey my best respects, and one for yourself.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in The Letters of Karl Marx. Selected and Translated with Explanatory Notes and an Introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.
  2. ↑ After so many vicissitudes (Virgil, Aeneid, I).
  3. ↑ playing the host
  4. ↑ Jacques Philips
  5. ↑ Sophie von Hatzfeldt
  6. ↑ law of retaliation
  7. ↑ Lion Philips
  8. ↑ Antoinette Philips
  9. ↑ See this volume, p. 279.
  10. ↑ See this volume, p. 281.
  11. ↑ In March 1861, Blanqui, who had returned to France after the amnesty of 1859, was arrested on charges of organising a secret society. On 14 June, he was sentenced to four years in prison, despite the absence of incriminating evidence.
  12. ↑ Marx met Simon Bernard on Saturday, 11 May 1861. As follows from Bernard's letter to Marx of 13 May, Marx told Bernard during their conversation that Sophie von Hatzfeldt was willing to lend a sum of money to organise Blanqui's escape. Thanks to Marx's efforts and the campaign he had launched, articles in defence of Blanqui appeared in the German, Italian and American progressive press (see also Note 309).
  13. ↑ trap
  14. ↑ This refers to the proceedings instituted on behalf of the Emperor of Austria against Kossuth and Messrs Day and Sons who had manufactured a large amount of Hungarian paper money in England. Applying to the English court, the Austrian government demanded an end to such actions and the destruction of the banknotes produced. On 27 February 1861, the Vice-Chancellor's Court granted the justice of this demand. On 12 June, the Court of Chancery turned down the defendants' appeal and confirmed the initial ruling.
  15. ↑ In September 1860, British Army Captain MacDonald, travelling in Germany, was arrested in Bonn on charges of disobeying the local authorities. He was kept in detention for six days, brought before a court and fined. The British government took advantage of the incident to whip up an anti-Prussia propaganda campaign. It was not until May 1861 that the conflict was resolved.
  16. ↑ Palmerston's speech in the House of Commons on 26 April 1861, The Times, No. 23918, 27 April 1861.
  17. ↑ 'Berliner Briefe', Freischütz, No. 49, 23 April 1861.
  18. ↑ First
  19. ↑ [J. K.] Rodbertus, Sociale Briefe an von Kirchmann. Dritter Brief..., Berlin, 1851.
  20. ↑ W. Roscher, System der Volkswirtschaft. Band I: Die Grundlagen der Nationalökonomie..., Stuttgart and Augsburg, 1858.
  21. ↑ False knowledge
  22. ↑ See this volume, p. 274.
  23. ↑ A monkey doesn't laugh.
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