Letter to Friedrich Engels, November 20, 1862

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MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 20 November 1862

Dear Engels,

I acknowledge, with many thanks and in great haste, receipt of the first half of the ten-pound note.

If only the Mexicans (les derniers des hommes!)[1] were once more to beat the crapauds,[2] but even in Paris these particular swine—the allegedly radical bourgeois—are now talking of l'honneur du drapeau.[3]

Unless Spence prevails over the NORTHERNERS, nothing will do any good, not even McClellan's BAD GENERALSHIP.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ the dregs of humanity!
  2. ↑ This refers to French armed intervention in Mexico (see Note 411). By crapauds (French: toads; figuratively, nonentities) Marx means the Bonapartist generals.
  3. ↑ the honour of the flag