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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, April 26, 1853
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 26 April 1853 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 26 April 1853
DEAR Frederic,
I fear that nothing will come of my proposed trip.[1] Bamberger cannot discount the bill for me and Friedländer, who half-promised to do so, has now definitely refused. I have written to Strohn about it,S79 but look on this as a mere formality which I complied with pour acquit de conscience[2] and for my wife's sake, without expecting anything to come of it.
A paper of mine for the Tribune (which included the first Turkish article)[3] about Mazzini's presence here—again denied by his friends but on his orders, I think—was made the basis for a short LEADER on Mazzini's lucky escape, followed by the comment:
"In this connection we may properly pay a tribute to the remarkable ability of the correspondent by whom this interesting piece of intelligence is furnished. Mr Marx has very decided opinions of his own, with some of which we are far from agreeing, but those who do not read his letters neglect one of the most instructive sources of information on the great questions of current European politics."[4]
As you see, I am firmly in the saddle. I have in addition had a most interesting letter from Cluss with 2 issues containing Hirsch's confessions[5] (not yet concluded). I'm not sending the stuff yet since there's still a chance that something might happen to enable me to come myself and bring the things with me. Anyhow, I won't come without notifying you beforehand. When is your old man arriving? I'd rather not cannon into him.
If only Dana would advise me of a business house here, as I have asked him three times to do, I should at least be over the worst.
Ad vocem[6] Hirsch: Originally I was of the same opinion[7] as yourself, but the matter is somewhat different. Stieber and Goldheim are definitely here, their purpose being to 'link' Kossuth's gunpowder plot with Berlin.[8]. The same fellow who wrote me the anonymous scrawl,[9] wrote on the same day to Schärttner and Göhringer word-for-word as follows:
'London, 21.4.53 Announcement
Recent arrivals: Police Commissioner Stieber and the Jew Goldheim, a police lieutenant, both of Berlin (P.T.O.)
Description
Stieber Medium height (about 5') Hair: black, short Moustache: ditto, ditto Complexion: sallow and muddy Wears dark, narrow trousers, a sack, a collapsible stuff hat, spectacles.
the Jew Goldheim
about 6' Hair: black, short Moustache: ditto, ditto Complexion: sallow, puffy features Wears black trousers, a light yellow sack, black hat.
N.B. Both of them regularly go about together and are accompanied by Hirsch, a commercial assistant from Hamburg, and Haering, a postal clerk from Willich's birth-place. Today Stieber and Goldheim had a meeting with Bangya. Stieber and Goldheim visit the Prussian Embassy regularly every day between 11 and 3.'
I believe the author to be Henry de L'Aspée, friend and compatriot of O. Dietz, that same aggrieved policeman who, you will recall, was to have [a meeting] with us after your arrival here for the purpose of making further revelations. You can see what headway 'Hirsch' is making. Nothing could be more inopportune for Willich-Kinkel.
FAREWELL.
Your
K. M.
As to the pound,[10] I shall give them each 10/-, since so far as I know there's some prospect of Pieper's getting his money without a lawsuit. The poor devil is hellish syphilitic and at the same time in rotten CIRCUMSTANCES and too featherbrained to look after himself.
- ↑ See this volume, pp. 303 and 314.
- ↑ to salve my conscience
- ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'British Politics.—Disraeli.—The Refugees.—Mazzini in London.—Turkey'.
- ↑ New-York Daily Tribune, No. 3736, 7 April 1853.
- ↑ W. Hirsch, 'Die Opfer der Moucharderie. Rechtfertigungsschrift', Belletristisches Journal und New-Yorker Criminal-Zeitung, presumably Nos. 3 and 4, 1 and 8 April 1853.
- ↑ re
- ↑ See this volume, pp. 301-02.
- ↑ In April 1853 as a pretext for reprisals against political refugees, the British authorities accused the proprietor of a rocket manufactory in Rotherhithe, in London, of a conspiracy with Kossuth which Marx ironically calls 'Kossuth's gunpowder plot' by analogy with the Catholic gunpowder plot against James I in England in 1605. In March 1853 the Prussian police arrested several liberal and radical bourgeois leaders in Berlin in an effort to trump up a new conspiracy case. These government and police actions are described in Marx's articles 'The Berlin Conspiracy', 'The Berlin Conspiracy.—London Police.—Mazzini.—Radetzky' and Marx's and Engels' article 'The Rocket Affair.—The Swiss Insurrection' (see present edition, Vol. 12)
- ↑ See this volume, p. 314.
- ↑ Reference to the help given to Dronke and Pieper.