Letter to Karl Marx, December 21, 1866

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Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 21 December 1866


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First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 3, Berlin, 1930

Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42

Extract published in Marx Engels on Literature and Art, Moscow 1976
Collection(s): Marx Engels on Literature and Art
Keywords : Letter, Politics, Ideology, Karl Marx

Letter to Marx in London

December 21, 1866[edit source]

Dear Moor,

I also think that the leaders in Western Europe will do their utmost to preserve the peace next year and until everyone is equipped with breech-loaders. However, whether the Russians will not consider this very time opportune for cutting Austria down to size with Bismarck’s help, for annexing Galicia and dividing Turkey up into a multitude of small Slav states, is another question. Moreover, it could happen that in France, too, war will become a necessity—for the sake of this military reorganisation, because without a war good old Boustrapa[1] will not be able to get it accepted. The last war[2] has placed the fellow in a curious dilemma: either he lets everything stand as it is, in which case he will no longer be a MATCH for Prussia, or else he carries the matter out, which will be disastrous for him, first because of his tremendous unpopularity, and second because he is completely debonapartising the army. From the moment that some kind of military service for all is introduced in France, the praetorian system400 will cease of its own accord and the 25-30% of RE-ENLISTED FELLOWS, who now serve in the French army, will disappear for the most part. However, as there will still be substitution,401 this time Mr Bonaparte will find himself in the comical predicament of needing the support of the bourgeoisie to oppose the peasantry. But the course of history really is quite impudently ruthless in dealing with this noble fellow, and he must be forgiven if he loses faith in the ways of God and the World. I hope he, like me, reads his Horace for recreation: justum ac tenacem propositi virum,[3] etc. Old Horace reminds me in places of Heine, who learnt a great deal from him and was au fond[4] politice[5] no less common a cur. Remember how the sterling fellow challenged the vultus instantis tyranni[6] and licked Augustus’ boots. And the old goat is quite charming in other respects, too.

I will get the book[7] for you next week if I can.

It is very pleasing about the articles in the Revue des deux Mondes and Fortnightly, although I have not yet been able to read them.[8] Revue contemporaine[9] does not exist here.

Wehner, who was recently in Germany, tells the following anecdote, which was told by Bennigsen (of the National Association[10]) himself: when Bennigsen had his meeting with Bismarck before the war, the latter expounded his whole National-Associationist German policy to him, whereupon Bennigsen enquired how it was that Bismarck was choosing the difficult path of war in order to carry it out, instead of simply ‘relying on the support of the people’, as the liberal cry has it. Bismarck stared at him for a few moments and then said: Could you jump a ditch with a rheumatic nag? He also brought back the news that the unhappy Crown Prince,[11] who used to put on such liberal airs, has become even more crazed than the old man[12] since the war, which is one good thing at least.

I enclose another two five-pound-notes, so that you shall not be quite without money over the holidays:

M/W 34768, London, 12 October 1866,

I/S 49080, Manchester, 26 January 1866, in the not entirely unfounded expectation that the accounts will indemnify me for it at the end of the year.

Many regards to the LADIES.

Your

F. E

  1. ↑ Boustrapa—nickname for Louis Bonaparte, composed of the first syllables of the names of the places where he and his supporters staged Bonapartist putches: Boulogne (August 1840), Strasbourg (October 1846) and Paris (coup d'état of 2 December 1851)
  2. ↑ the Austro-Prussian war
  3. ↑ a just man, firm of purpose (Horace, Odes, III, iii,1)
  4. ↑ basically
  5. ↑ in respect of politics
  6. ↑ the tyrant's threatening countenance (Horace, Odes, III, iii, 3)
  7. ↑ J. E. Th. Rogers, A History of Agriculture (see previous letter)
  8. ↑ L. Reybaud, 'L'économie politique des ouvriers', Revue des deux Mondes, Vol. 66, 1 November 1866; the leading article in The Fortnightly Review, No. 37, December 1866.
  9. ↑ See Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 17, 1866
  10. ↑ The National Association (Deutscher National-Verein) was a party of the German liberal bourgeoisie which advocated the unification of Germany (without Austria) in a centralised state under the supremacy of the Prussian monarchy. Its inaugural meeting was held in Frankfurt am Main in September 1859. The National Association was dissolved in November 1867, after the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 and the establishment of the North German Confederation.
  11. ↑ Frederick William
  12. ↑ William I
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