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Letter to Friedrich Engels, March 24, 1857
First published: in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Stuttgart, 1913.
To Engels in Manchester
London, 24 March 1857 9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill[edit source]
Dear Engels,
Herewith some anti-Palmerstoniana, viz.: 1. Betrayal of England, 2 copies. (NB. The self-same Coningham who here reproduces excerpts from Anstey’s speech is now an ultra-Palmerstonian candidate in Brighton.) 2. Tucker-pamphlets, 8 copies. 3. Anstey’s speech. 4. Palmerston for Premier. 5. Palmerston in Three Epochs. (With the exception of the Hungarian affair, cribbed from Urquhart, the remainder has been lifted by Mr Wilks — just like him, of course — from my articles in the Tribune.) No need for you to preserve numbers 1 and 2; but possibly numbers 3, 4 and 5. Tomorrow, if I can find them, I shall send a few other pamphlets. As to the Nord, note that the Post itself (in one of the numbers appearing between 4 and 9 March) carried the article I have mentioned. Later, however, it changed its tune.
Now for private affairs. D'abord a letter has arrived from the Tribune, which I shall send you as soon as I have answered it. My threat to write to another paper has worked after all, at least up to a point. Despite its very friendly tone, the letter shows that I was not mistaken about these gentlemen. For what they propose is to pay for one article a week, whether or not they print it; the second I send at my own risk, and draw on it if printed. Thus they are au fait cutting me down by one half. However I shall agree to it and must agree to it. Also, if things in England take the course I think they will, it won’t be long before my income reaches its former level again.
I'm very sorry that, in the meantime, I must continue to depend on you, having so greatly fallen into arrears that everything that could be pawned has been pawned and the drop in income cannot be made up until I have found some new resource. On top of that, and since I cannot after all withhold the fact from you, my wife is in highly interesting circumstances. However, all I intended in my last was to explain why I hadn’t answered for so long — certainly not anything else. You will understand that even the most equable of men — and in a mess such as this I do indeed possess a great deal of equanimity — will sometimes lose patience and let himself go, especially vis à vis his friends.
I should be most grateful if you could let me have a few ‘humorous’ lines, say 50 or 100 ones, on the Orlandian bravery evinced by the English in Persia and before Canton. The Bushire expedition, as you will have seen, pivoted mainly on the espionage of one Captain Jones, who was sent to Bushire under false pretences as political agent. Probably more tomorrow, as I want to send you the pamphlets today.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
NB. It does after all make a difference whether one stages a coup d'état first and elections afterwards, or elections first with a subsequent coup d'état in view. Without doubt Palmerston, or at least his papers, have overdone their part. Take the Advertiser, for instance, wallowing in filth up to its eyebrows. This has, of course, evoked a measure of reaction.