Letter to Karl Marx, May 15, 1870

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To Marx in London,

Manchester, May 15, 1870

Dear Moor,

Mainz is not so bad, the Hessian Government is always at loggerheads with the Prussian Governor, and the Prussians have to declare a state of siege in the city before they can do anything. Darmstadt has too small a proletariat and, in addition, a small court, so one cannot count on anything. Mannheim, also, has a smaller proletariat than Mainz, and altogether I think it would be good to hold the congress under the noses of the Prussian soldiers. If it is broken up, then the whole show can move to Brussels; even those compromised in Prussia can get there via Strasbourg, Metz and Luxembourg in 24 hours; the others via Cologne or Saarbrücken-Luxembourg. Apropos, the International should try to obtain a footing in Luxembourg; there are many miners, tanners, etc., there. This must be done from Saarbrücken or Aachen; the committee should be charged with this.

Best thanks for the Celtica. I shall take a few hours to look up further details in the Chetham LIBRARY, where I shall probably find something.

Ogygia is a horribly uncritical thing; here and there there are notes of some value, since the fellow had at his disposal old writings now lost, but in order to discover this you would have to plough through Irish Codices for at least 3 years. Dr Ch. O’Conor’s Scriptores are ± good sources, but mainly later ones; but he also published the Annals of Ulster with a Latin translation and, ditto, the first volume of the Annals of the 4 Masters, and I don’t know whether this is included there. But the Annals of the 4 Masters, the main work, was edited and translated by Dr O’Donovan in 1856, and I have it here; I went through the first volume yesterday.

Ware (Sir Jam. Ware, I think judge or something of the sort under Charles I) is by far the best of the older ones; he also had available to him, in translation, old writings now lost; he wrote in Latin (Waraeus), I have him in English and Latin.

The continuous reading of Irish books, i.e., the parallel English translation, could not be stood without at least a superficial knowledge of the phonetic and inflexional laws of the language. I have discovered here a frightful Irish grammar from Anno 1773, and ploughed through it the day before yesterday, thereby learning something, but the man himself had no idea of the real laws of Irish. The only good grammar is that by Dr John O’Donovan, mentioned above, the best Irologist of this century. When you go to the Museum you should take it out in order to see what it would cost approximately (O’Donovan has the habit of publishing nothing except fat expensive quarto volumes): O’Donovan’s Irish Grammar. In addition you might also look at:

Genealogies, Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrak, PRINTED FOR THE IRISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1844 (presumably by O’Donovan), and

Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many (ditto), to find out whether there is anything in them about social conditions, and whether these are fat expensive books: if not, and there is something in them, I shall acquire them.

There exists, further, an edition (by O’Donovan) of Leabhar nag-Ceart (BOOK OF RIGHTS), and if you could find an opportunity to take a look at it and tell me whether there is any prospect of results in it—NB. only for social conditions, everything else is of no interest to me—and whether it is an expensive de luxe edition, I would be very much obliged. On the basis of the quotations I have, there is not much in it for my purpose.

But this, I think, fairly well exhausts the relevant old literature, insofar as it has been published.

Ogarev was already an editor of Kolokol with Herzen, and is quite an ordinary bourgeois and poet. If Bakunin should really receive the money, and not Ogarev, then Ogarev will certainly be fettered to him as a controller.

In the last few days I have often been sitting at the quadrilateral desk in the small bow-window where we sat 24 years ago; I like this place very much; because of its coloured window the weather is always fine there.480 Old Jones the librarian is still around, but he is very old and does nothing more; I haven’t yet seen him there again.

Best greetings.

Your

F. E.

The letter from Wilhelm (which is returned, enclosed, together with the Brunswick one) is really the silliest thing I have ever read. What a dumb ox! Now I am wondering what reply he will give me. At the end I advised him to consider whether it were not fitting to first study something if you want to teach it. In which PARLIAMENTARY PAPER can one see how much money is thrown away annually on the COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE ANCIENT LAWS AND INSTITUTES OF IRELAND? This is a simply colossal job (in miniature). It would also be important to know how much of this money is allocated 1. as remuneration for the inactive commissioners, 2. as salaries for the actually-working UNDERSTRAPPERS, printing costs, etc. This must be given in some PARLIAMENTARY PAPER. The fellows have been drawing emoluments since 1852, and until now 2 volumes have been published! 3 LORDS, 3 judges, 3 priests, 1 general, and 1 professional Irologist, now long dead.