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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 26, 1859
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 26 August 1859 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
London, 26 August [1859]
DEAR Fred,
Das Volk is no more. I had already advanced to Hollinger the £2 you sent at the end of last week, for otherwise last Friday's issue (a week ago today) would not have come out. I have therefore paid it back to myself. In addition I owe Garthe £4 (for the paper) and ABOUT £2 more to Lessner, £6 in all. Moreover in Hollinger's case the deficit has accumulated—which doesn't, of course, concern us so immediately. However, it ought not to be allowed to grow any more. This can only be charged when the money for the subscriptions has come in. The French paper is not going to appear because of the amnesty.[1]
Borchardt, the braggart, wrote to say there was nothing doing in Manchester. First, because of the peace, then because of the amnesty. But more especially—and this was something he had not himself felt able to refute—because Das Volk was a scurrilous paper (oh, you idiot of a philistine!). I.e. not nice enough for the Steinthals and other such Ikeys. On the other hand a letter arrived at the same time from Lupus in which he spoke very highly of Das Volk. But the FACT is that as the paper improved, losses increased and readers fell off. Besides, that idiot Biskamp, with all sorts of people on at him, appeared to be jealous on account of his dwindling importance on the paper.
Lastly, in view of Liebknecht's ineptitude and Biskamp's instability and weakness, it would have become increasingly necessary for me to intervene directly in the editorial work (for if sales were low among the louts, they were correspondingly high among the German diplomatic haute volée[2] in London). Distances being what they are here, the thing was in any case taking up too much of my time, and my own circumstances ARE IN SUCH A DESPERATE
STATE THAT I MUST LOOK T O THEM.
That wretch Dronke hasn't even subscribed for one copy. Your cousin Siebel, however, as you will see from the enclosed, is the Hermann's bard under Beta's management.[3]
Salut.
Your
K. M.
- ↑ Marx means the Union Républicaine, which was to be published by Ledru-Rollin and Louis Blanc (see this volume, p. 480). Napoleon Ill's amnesty for political offenders (16 August 1859) was to ensure his government the support of liberal circles.—484
- ↑ upper crust
- ↑ Probably a reference to the item 'Sprüche von Carl Siebel' in Hermann, No. 33, 20 August 1859.